Over eighteen months after plans were revealed to add further houses to a current Ruddington development, permission to expand it onto additional land which was also previously part of our village Green Belt has been granted by Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC).
Subject to conditions and an additional ‘Section 106’ agreement, two dozen more houses will now be constructed alongside the 185 already being built by William Davis Homes at ‘Lace Fields’ on former agricultural land opposite Mere Way. This is despite only 170 dwellings originally being approved on this site in the Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2. After that, ‘tweaks’ during the detailed application stages saw the property developer gain permission to increase the density of its original housing there to accommodate 185.
After a slight revision to the original layout {top image courtesy of Pegasus Group} this number has now been boosted to 209 houses thanks to these extra 24 dwellings being given the green light on 0.75 hectares of ‘spare’ adjacent land owned by My Care. The site is behind Balmore Country House Care Home at 245-247 Loughborough Road and was also removed from Ruddington’s Green Belt when the original major housing plans were granted.
This latest planning application stated that this area has been unmaintained for a number of years and is separated from the curtilage of Balmore Retirement Village by a group of coniferous trees. The rectangular plot is bounded on its other three sides by the William Davis development – currently creating a bit of a ‘bottleneck’ to the northern end of the new estate, as shown below.
The new housing will now be incorporated as an ‘extension’ of the developer’s original plans and the approval stipulates it must include 7 affordable as well 17 market properties. The site will have two points of access from the existing development; one to the south (private drive) and one to the north (adopted road). All existing ‘site features’, such as the mature conifers, are to be removed except for the boundary hedgerow to the west of the site.
Full details of this application 21/01768/FUL and it’s approval can be viewed >>HERE<< on RBC’s planning portal.
Being a bit of a ‘satellite’ estate – some distance away from Ruddington’s historic village centre – it seems a separate ‘community’ has already been established there by new resident Lindsey Taylor via her Lace Fields Ruddington Facebook page which was set up in March 2022. So far her group has over seventy neighbours exchanging news, views and information – with more gradually being welcomed as further houses are completed and their new residents move in. The 24 extra homes just approved there promise to boost this number even further.
When ‘Local Plan’ public consultations about Green Belt housing first began, villagers were told Ruddington would need to accommodate 250 new homes on its surrounding green fields by 2028. This rose to 350 as RBC’s Local Plan Part 2 progressed, and had reached 525 by the time a Government Planning Inspector approved the documents. However, subsequent permissions granted by Rushcliffe Borough Council for a higher density of homes on three out of the four Ruddington sites has already increased that total to 583. The “Lace Fields” extension now takes it to 607 new houses on former village Green Belt land.
It’s also worth noting this application is completely separate from the adjacent land belonging to Croft House, at 211 Loughborough Road, which has now been sold. Subject to planning permission, it’s being suggested a further 32 houses could be accommodated here, now that its green belt status has also been rescinded. That would make 639 new dwellings on Ruddington’s formerly protected green space!
Meantime, villagers have until February 14th 2023 to take part in the latest Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan ‘Preferred Approach Consultation’ about further potential development in the city and surrounding county up to 2038. You can read more about this >>HERE<<.
