Planners have recommended councillors approve new plans to remove acoustic sound barriers protecting residents and wildlife from traffic noise caused by the Gedling Access Road – despite a successful campaign by residents to get them installed a few years ago.
Killarney Homes has submitted plans to Gedling Borough Council for eight new houses and three apartment blocks containing 29 flats on land next to Pepperpots on Colliery Way – previously known as the Gedling Access Road.
As part of the application, it is proposed to remove part of the acoustic fencing around a small parcel of land close to Clementine Drive.
In the planning report, it states the fences are ‘intended to be re-sited on the eastern edge of the site’.
The plans will now be approved or rejected by the council’s planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday (26) night.
Local residents and councillors first launched a campaign for the screens back in 2019 after it was revealed that planning officers were advising that those at the Mapperley end of the GAR would be ‘detrimental to the visual amenity of the area’ and should be removed from the road plans.
At the time, officers felt that the landscape had changed considerably since the proposals were originally put forward and screens weren’t necessary to protect houses and wildlife from the noise at that time.
Deputy Council Leader Cllr Michael Payne and then-MP Vernon Coaker joined with residents and also representatives from Friends of Gedling Country Park in calling for the fences to be erected
The recommendations to remove screens from the GAR plans were later unanimously rejected by Gedling Borough Council‘s planning committee and they were eventually erected during the final stages of the road’s construction.
Following the meeting back in 2018, Cllr Payne told Gedling Eye that the decision was ‘a victory for common sense’.
He said: “It’s all about trust and I think that we’d have struggled to get people to believe in the planning process if we’d lost tonight. They’d have felt like we had gone back on our word to protect their properties and local wildlife.”
Following the fresh proposals, Friends of Gedling Country Park took to their social media channel(s) this week voicing their opposition to the removal of the screens.
They said: “Imagine the disappointment that the first planning application has now come in since the road opened and the planning officer is recommending that the new fence is moved, which will result in the newly-planted wildlife hedgerows being removed by the developer.
“We’re hoping they will keep the fence where it is, stop the decimation of the newly-planted hedgerows and trees, which we, the taxpayers, paid for) and please consider vulnerable occupants of newly-built housing.
They added: “We know enough about the damaging effects of pollution to not be building affordable housing next the road with no pollution mitigation measures in place.”
One local resident contacted Gedling Eye and said: “The new affordable housing in the right-hand block of land would not benefit from these mitigation measures. Is the duty of care lower for poorer people when we build affordable housing? Are they immune to the effects of sound and fuel emissions, diesel and petrol pollution or do we just not bother when it’s for poor people?”
Nottinghamshire Wildllfe Trust were consulted on the plans and in the report recommended there would be a need to ensure that protected species are protected.
They said: “During site clearance an ecologist should be onsite to ensure any disturbed hedgehogs are re-located; ensure no badgers are on-site and look to achieve a suitable landscaping scheme.”
A Gedling Borough Council spokesperson told Gedling Eye: “Gedling Borough Council has received a planning application from Killarney Homes for 8 houses and 29 flats and as part of the proposals it is intended to relocate existing acoustic barriers near Colliery Way.
“The application will be presented to the Planning Committee on July 26 where a decision will be made.
“A summary of all comments made by the public on the application will be presented to the Committee as part of the process.”
The planning application can be seen here – 2021/0934
The full planning report submitted to the Planning Committee for consideration on July 26 from the Planning Officer, including recommendations regarding the planning application 2021/0934, can be found on Gedling Borough Council Website HERE
a victory for common sense … but we’ll soon put a stop to that