Work begins to build Top Wighay Farm eco village near Linby

Work is now well advanced to build a new eco village in Nottinghamshire. 

Known as Top Wighay Farm, it is hoped the mixed-use scheme will draw in hundreds of low-carbon jobs, as well as providing sustainable housing and architecture for a new community.

The initial stage of the work – to build a new road junction on to the site of the development just to the north of Hucknall – is expected to be finished by Spring next year. 

Eventually, it is hoped there will be a school, doctors surgery, shops, and employment space, as well as a new flagship county council office building.

One of the driving forces behind the scheme is the Conservative leader of the county council, Kay Cutts.

Speaking about the scheme, she said: “The county council bought this land, probably 20 years ago. 

“We were considering what we should do with our rented premises in Annesley. 

“They’re not in a great place, car parking is always difficult, public transport isn’t really suitable and we were thinking of where do we need an office, where does the workforce largely live, and I thought – Top Wighay. 

“I was probably one of the few people who still remembered we had got (the land). 

“That’s when we started to develop plans for the new village. It’s not just an estate, we thought very hard about what is it you would want if you were having a new village?

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“If you’re going to have a primary school there, how should that be served. If you’re going to have a medical centre and shops there, where do they need to be?

“Sometimes we have put schools in the wrong place, so we thought long and hard about what the shape of the village should be. 

“In the end we put what I call the sacred heart there, with all the services together, and green walkways through to it.

“Anyone living there will be able to walk to school.

“I’m old enough to be able to remember when everyone walked to school, and actually it was quite an enjoyable occupation, you chatted to each other and made friends. 

“I’m hoping that a safer type of living will really contribute to the village.”

Detailed plans for the new village are still being fine tuned, and is expected the huge project will take years to finish.

But planners hope it will eventually create 1,000 jobs, and 800 homes on the 100-acre site.

Councillor Cutts said the bulk of the strategic, high-level planning had already been carried out.

She said: “Rather than trying to retrofit traffic calming we’re putting it there at the beginning, so it will be unacceptable to drive around there at speed. 

“We also thought about how people want to live and work, and recreation is a part of that, so we’ve got the attenuation pond which we’re keeping as a green environment.

“There will probably be a pavilion, village hall, a playing field, all built in. 

“It has not been thought through on a plan which is sterile, it has been thought through on what do we all need, and what do we all love. 

“But the reason for starting all of that was that we needed new offices in that part of the county, to accommodate our workers.

“It is very satisfying to see spades in the ground and things changing there. 

“I was particularly involved in this, because we were paying about £400,000 rent a year (for the old building) and that’s a lot of money out of the public purse.

“By providing a building of our own in the right part of the country, it will save that rent, and it has provided an opportunity to think differently.

“We will be using all the technology available to create a greener place to live and work, and I think that’s why it’s caught people’s imaginations.”