Gridlock. Flooding. Eroding communities. These are just some of the fears of residents across Gedling as they face losing their green space to housing.
“Nobody supports this”, says 55-year-old Mike Isted MBE, reacting to the prospect of up to 670 extra homes being built in his village, Calverton.
The rural village has already grown in recent years, with Persimmon close to finishing its 363-home development in the north. It has also recently outlined plans for 154 more homes nearby.
Calverton is not the only part of the borough facing the prospect of hundreds of new homes.
Gedling Borough Council is moving forward with its draft Local Development Plan, which has outlined areas it says could be used to allocate an extra 6,045 homes by 2043 to ensure housing targets are met.
In late June, the authority could launch a six-week consultation to gather local feedback on expanding areas such as Mapperley, Redhill, Ravenshead, Calverton, and Linby.
But concerns amongst Gedling residents are already brewing, with fears their communities will not be able to “cope with an influx of people and traffic.
Redhill
Whilst part of the Nottingham urban sprawl, Redhill, Arnold, has the best of both worlds, with Mansfield Road providing easy access to the city and its northern suburbs, but sitting below the swathes of fields leading towards Calverton.
The area could see around 1,300 extra homes built on its northern and western edges, with land south of Lime Lane allocated for 925 homes, on top of 150 homes that have not yet received planning permission, and New Farm allocated for 375 homes.
Ian Caudell, 75, living near the patch below Lime Lane, said his area already deals with flooding, with his neighbour’s house once “ruined” by water coming off the field.
Despite this, he said: “It’s a lovely location, but it’s prime building land. It doesn’t belong to us, so we don’t really have a right… I don’t like the idea of restricting social necessities.”
Other residents were worried about how additional residents and vehicles would affect the area and the loss of wildlife such as red kites, skylarks, badgers, and foxes.
Anne, living nearby since 1988, said: “We’ve hardly got enough doctors and schools, it’s got bigger since we’ve lived here – I think it’d be too much, too many. There aren’t enough shops – Arnold’s dying on its feet, and they don’t seem to be putting anything into replace anything.”
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: “All emergency services come from it. Queens Medical Centre is the region’s trauma centre, and a lot of ambulances come that way – that road is the only one they can use.
“When we do get a problem on Mansfield Road, it gridlocks, the traffic has to come down Redhill, down the T-junction, traffic from other directions comes down Calverton Road, so it meets at a point, so when something happens, the whole of Arnold, Bestwood, it all gridlocks because none of it can empty because of the lack of available roads.”
They said residents living near the space are already in “prison” when traffic builds up on Red Hill Road and Mellors Road.
Calverton or ‘Calver-town’?
With the village having already expanded, the council’s allocation could see a further 500 homes built on fields next to the Persimmon development off Park Road, including part of the land being used for a school and a shop.
Independent Borough Councillor Andy Meads, representing Calverton, says the traffic build-up in the village’s centre is “chronic”.
He said: “We had 45 parking spaces in the centre of the village in the 1960s, and they’re the same parking spaces we’ve got now, and it’s probably 10 times as many cars.
“It’s not just that more people have got cars, it’s that these new developments are further and further away, so it’s blatantly obvious people are going to drive into the middle of the village and it’s chronic… you’ll get people pipping their horns, it’s like gridlock.”
The feeling that the village is becoming more like a town is shared by many.
Cllr Meads said Calverton is “twice as big” now as it was when he was a child, adding: “It’s got this thing where everybody knew everybody… it’s still a village, but it’s a village that can’t cope with what we’ve got.
“Unless they do something with the parking now, which we’ve been asking for, we won’t cope with any more traffic.
“We call it Calver-town. Technically, it’s not, we haven’t got the facilities of it being a town, but obviously we’re already bursting at the seams now.”
Mike Isted MBE, 55, has lived in the area for the last 10 years and in Calverton for three of them after retiring from the military in 2014 after 26 years’ service.
He said initial public consultation on the emerging council plans was lacking, saying: “Nobody supports this, so if nobody supports it, that means those people who are in public office to represent those who have elected them should be doing the will of the people they’re representing – and that’s not the case.”
Speaking fondly of the village’s former mining history and the annual fetes, Mr Isted said: “This village has a soul, it genuinely does.”
But he had concerns about whether the new homes would cater to the existing community and the extra strain on the village’s infrastructure.
He said: “Those houses are going up for sale [nearby] for nearly £300,000 – really? Who’s buying them then? It isn’t anyone from around here… people can’t afford to buy houses.
“I don’t believe the building will have any parity with increased public services, whether that was doctors, policing, or emergency service coverage.”
Will Ravenshead lose its quaint triangular shape?
The leafy, affluent village of Ravenshead could expand by nearly 1,000 properties, with 750 homes allocated at Silverland Farm, 120 at Kighill Lane, and 50 proposed off Nottingham Road.
Councillor Stuart Bestwick (Con), representing the area on the council, said the extra homes could impact the “community spirit” of the village and does not want it to mirror the growth seen in Calverton.
He said: “Ravenshead has a unique community, some of it is run on volunteers, from Ready Call, u3a, our community bus service… there’s something there for you in our village.
“I walk out my door, walk to shops, and I guarantee I’ll see someone I know and say hello. That spirit of the village, of organising things like community transport, when you introduce another set of homes that could have a detrimental effect on that community spirit for 60 years.”
He says the Silverland Farm allocation has left residents worried about traffic in the village, where the Larch Farm junction with the A60 already has “bottlenecks”.
There are already flooding issues in Ravenshead, and Cllr Bestwick says there are concerns for the impact development could have on school and doctor placements, adding: “We’re holding a drop-in session on June 4th on how residents can object, and the parish council has enlisted the help of a planning consultant.”
The vulnerable future of Mapperley’s ‘jewel in the crown’ golf course
Nestled behind sweeps of homes and a busy main road sits Mapperley’s long-standing golf course – a peaceful refuge away from the hustle and bustle of the urban sprawl.
Mapperley Golf Club has managed its site off Plains Road and Central Avenue for the past 127 years, but that could come to an end after it was allocated for up to 750 homes.
This is not the first time the golf course has been threatened with development. The council allocated the area for up to 1,900 homes until 2011, but this fell through.
Staff at the club have recently said it is “thriving”, with some believing the council has ‘bitten off more than it can chew’ by putting the space back under the spotlight.
Gedling borough and county councillor, Sam Smith (Con), has called the potential “erosion” of the golf course “the saddest” part of the council’s allocations.
He said: “It’s the only golf course this side of Calverton. It’s the jewel in Gedling’s crown.
“It brings in spending to Gedling borough. Others stop off for lunch, have breakfast, it’s a great venue for community events, birthdays. To build on that is a disgrace, and it will absolutely increase flooding.
“The council talk about wellbeing and lifestyle choices. They have already closed Gedling Indoor Bowls Club’s site, now it’s the golf club – what it does for senior residents’ and mental health and wellbeing is amazing.”
Other allocations include:
- The former Sherwood Academy, Gedling – 125 homes
- Mapperley Plains East – 650 homes
- Teal Close extension – adding 500 homes to the existing development that is under construction between Netherfield and Stoke Bardolph
- Willow Farm extension – adding 140 homes to the existing development that is under construction
- Top Wighay Farm site – 880 more homes added to the existing development that is under construction to the north of Hucknall
- Westhouse Farm, Bestwood Village extension – 300 homes added to the existing development that is under construction
