Shelford Road

The release of land from the Green Belt to allow residential development has always been a highly contentious matter across the country.  One usually dictated by politics and a misunderstanding of the purpose of Green Belts, rather than a process of appropriately planning for the delivery of sustainable development when and where it’s needed to address the nation’s housing crisis.

Here delays to the delivery of the strategic development sites close to Nottingham required the Borough Council to commit to a review of its Local Plan to address the acute housing needs and failing land supply by directing growth to key settlements elsewhere in the Borough.  However, much of the Borough is washed over by the Nottingham Green Belt and the process became protracted with many delays and backward steps along the way.

William Davis’ site at Radcliffe on Trent was promoted through the preparation of both the Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan as a highly sustainable location for future development.  The early submission of a speculative outline planning application sought to drive the local agenda by highlighting how the new neighbourhood would have a distinctive character and enhance the settlement edge and could be realised with minimal harm to the remaining Green Belt in the wider area.

The deliverability of improved local education and health facilities to serve the growth of the village became a key issue and the application proposals included a commitment to provide land for the provision of new facilities as and when required.

Whilst there was initially a great deal of local resistance, the site was eventually removed from the Green Belt and allocated for development in the Local Plan.  However, prior to that, and in light of the clearly evidenced “very special circumstances”, the Borough Council granted the outline planning permission and approved the reserved matters for the first phase of development whilst the site was still in the Green Belt.  The development is now progressing quickly on site and is proving very popular.