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New ‘Flagship garden village’ progressing well on outskirts of Linby

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Work is well underway to lay the groundworks for a huge new development on the outskirts of Linby, councillors have been told. 

The carbon neutral ‘flagship garden village’ at Top Wighay Farm will see at least 805 homes, and is designed to be a ‘self-sufficient settlement’, with its own primary school, shops and a community centre, as well as employment opportunities. 

Construction work is under way to upgrade two road junctions on the A611, and 10 developers have expressed an interest in developing the site – now whittled down to five. 

A meeting of Nottinghamshire County Council yesterday (15) discussed a report which shows the scheme remains on track despite COVID-19. 

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Councillor Chris Barnfather is a Conservative councillor for the area where it will be built, and said: “It’s a site which has been on my radar since 2009 when I was first elected and there are some very mixed emotion in the local area as to the impact it will have on the small conservation village (Linby)next to it. 

“I think it’s important as decisions have been made to move this forward, that we remove the uncertainty in terms of the concept.

Work gets underway on a new junction outside the new Top Wighay Farm development

“It’s an exciting concept to create effectively a new garden village on the outskirts of Hucknall, albeit within the boundary of Gedling borough, hopefully with a strong degree of self sufficiency, but which will have a strong economic impact for the good of Hucknall as an important economic and retail centre. 

“It’s good to see the two road junctions have now commenced off the A611, and that we can now progress with the legal issues that will allow this to move forward positively by the end of this year.” 

However some concerns were raised over local infrastructure. 

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Developers behind large developments such as Top Wighay Farm have to pay a local levy, known as Section 106, towards local infrastructure. 

Despite the scheme being on the outskirts of Hucknall – which is part of Ashfield – the Section 106 money will go to Gedling, and could be spent elsewhere in the borough, rather than on infrastructure in Hucknall.

Councillor David Martin is the Ashfield Independent councillor for Selston, and said: “It’s a bit of a bone of contention. I like the site as a whole, but again Ashfield is at the behest of Gedling where Section 106 money is concerned.

“I’ve seen this before on Wighay Road when the last development was put in. No 106 money came to Hucknall, infrastructure was not improved or increased, it went to Bestwood Country Park.

“This time there’s been no commitment by Gedling to use 106 money to improve any of the infrastructure in Hucknall whatsoever.”

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The update report was approved today by 17 votes to zero, with two abstentions from the two Ashfield Independent councillors.

Spotted something? Got a story? Email our newsdesk news@gedlingeye.co.uk

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