Overdue Junction Improvements Should Get ‘Green Light’ Soon

For over a year, frustration has been building among village motorists and other residents about the mounting peak-time traffic queues at Ruddington’s busiest crossroads. The increased delays at the Loughborough Road/Kirk Lane/Flawforth Lane traffic lights are being blamed on a failure to carry out the promised junction improvement works there – as hundreds of new families move into the four, major new developments approved in Ruddington as part of the Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) ‘Local Plan Part Two’. As previously reported, Avant Homes in particular has come in for criticism after…

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Historic Hedgerow Ripped Out “in Error”

The house-builder currently constructing 175 new properties on former Ruddington Green Belt south of Musters Road says a contractor removed a large section of mature hedgerow there by mistake. Gardeners from ‘Buttercup Allotments’ off Asher Lane were alerted to the totally unexpected loss of their boundary hedge when a contractor working for Avant Homes suddenly starting digging it out on Maundy Thursday. When the allotments’ owner Brian Booker rushed onsite to challenge them, protesting that removal of this hedgerow was definitely not in Rushcliffe Borough Council‘s approved plans for ‘Wilbur Chase’,…

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Historic Ash Tree Felled by Developer

Ruddington residents overlooking the new Wilbur Chase development south of Musters Road are expressing their dismay that a large, mature tree next to the site has been chopped down today – despite their pleas to save it. The historic Ash tree sat on the boundary of the field owned by village businessman John Hallam and the former green belt agricultural land next to it – upon which Avant Homes is now constructing 175 controversially approved new houses. Retention of this 17 metre tall tree was clearly shown on the developer’s…

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Property Developer’s Second Planning Breach

It’s been confirmed the house-builder currently constructing 175 new houses on almost sixteen acres of Ruddington’s former Green Belt south of Musters Road has breached its planning conditions for the second time in just over a year. Residents nearby have reacted with dismay at being told a total of 38 ‘Wilbur Chase’ properties are now occupied – breaching even the revised 35 property limit set by Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC). Stipulations for Avant Homes (Midlands)‘s original planning approval for this estate included that off-site highway improvement works to the A60/Kirk Lane/Flawforth Lane junction…

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Residents’ Concerns Over Second Planning Breach

Villagers living close to the ‘Wilbur Chase’ housing development in Ruddington say they’re very concerned that the property builder could soon be allowed to get away with another serious infringement of its planning conditions for the new estate. Avant Homes (Midlands) is currently constructing 175 new houses on our former Green Belt, south of Musters Road, on what used to be 15.89 acres of farmland. Residents first complained to Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) in September last year when the developer began allowing households to move in to the first of its completed new properties…

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No Traffic Lights for our Village Centre

Ruddington residents and village Councillors are expressing dismay that one of the key planning conditions for the approval of 175 houses down Asher Lane has now been abandoned by Rushcliffe Borough Council without a clear alternative. At a meeting of its Planning Committee yesterday, Councillors voted 7 to 2 in favour of allowing Avant Homes  to continue letting residents move into its ‘Wilbur Chase’ development – despite not all the stipulated highway improvements having yet been completed. The original planning conditions were imposed to avoid worsening the peak-time traffic congestion through our village…

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Housebuilder Rapped for Planning Breach

Residents at the southern end of our village have sent an official complaint to Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) after it became clear that a Ruddington property developer is allowing the first households to move into its new homes in violation of agreed planning conditions. Avant Homes (Midlands) is currently building 175 dwellings south of Musters Road – a new 15.89 acre estate, controversially approved on our former Green Belt, called ‘Wilbur Chase’. Existing villagers were alerted to the company’s transgression by its own social media last week, which pictured a couple…

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Asher Lane To Be Shut for a Week!

In another frustrating turn of events for villagers and visitors, it’s been announced that a key access road at the southern end of Ruddington will need to be totally closed for a week this summer. As the construction of 175 new homes at the ‘Wilbur Chase’ housing development gathers pace, “carriageway improvement work” on behalf of Avant Homes will shut Asher Lane from its junction with Distillery Street to its junction with Musters Road from 7.30am on Monday 14th June through to 4.30pm on Friday 18th June. It’s believed this closure is for the widening…

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House Builder Seeks Highway Improvements Delay

A property developer currently building 175 new houses on former Green Belt land in Ruddington is asking for “a change in time frame” for offsite highway improvements at two busy junctions. Avant Homes (Midlands) is seeking a “variation of planning Condition 9” 18/00300/OUT until the first 35 dwellings on its new 15.89 acre ‘Wilbur Chase’ development south of Musters Road have been occupied. To cope with the anticipated increase in traffic flow through Ruddington, the original approval was conditional upon financial contributions being made by Avant to the Local Highway Authority, both in lieu of…

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Asher Lane Parking Plea

Safety concerns have been raised by local residents after a significant recent increase in visitors attempting to use Asher Lane to park for Rushcliffe Country Park. It seems the issue has been especially bad on Saturdays and Sundays – with drivers favouring access through our narrow village streets to try to park alongside the north eastern perimeter of the popular Ruddington green space rather than in the official car park off Mere Way. Sue Powdrill, who took these photographs for us, tells RUDDINGTON.info: “There is a constant queue of cars trying to…

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