Planners give go-ahead for another residential scheme in a controversial Chesterfield ward

Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning committee resolved at a recent meeting to approve the planning application for the apartment block with eight units on land to the north of Dunston Road, in the Dunston ward, Chesterfield, near to Albert Street North, and Whittington Moor.

The decision to give the go-ahead for the apartment block was made during the same meeting when planning permission was also given for William Davis Homes’s controversial scheme for 500 dwellings to be built from Dunston Road and Dunston Lane, between Sheepbridge and Cutthorpe, near its new 299 home Skylarks residential development.

Concerning the planning application for the apartment block, borough council development manager Paul Staniforth told the meeting: “This is an application for a two-and-a-half storey block of eight flats on land at Dunston Road.”

The proposed vacant and unused site for the apartments – which is some distance away from the William Davis Homes’ scheme – has a garage to the northeast, and residential areas to the south east and the south west, and a commercial unit to the north west, according to Mr Staniforth.

Despite the application for the apartments being approved in 2021, the planning committee had to reconsider “minor changes” to windows to ensure noise reduction for new residents and to landscaping concerning land not deemed to be in the developers’ ownership.

The proposed site for the apartment block is in a suburban area and Mr Staniforth said it will fit well with neighbouring properties and be within key walking distances of facilities and services in a built-up settlement within the boundary of Dunston.

Mr Staniforth added: “It’s a scheme that fits in the area and it’s already been approved in 2021.”

The planning committee followed planners’ recommendations to finally, fully approve Mr G.H. Preston’s planning application for the apartment block which was officially passed subject to conditions during the planning committee meeting on July 24.

Conditions include checks on past, shallow coal mining activity and any contamination, a noise impact assessment and that any landscaping must meet approved details.

More than a hundred disappointed Chesterfield residents had packed the same council meeting to hear the planning committee give the go-ahead for the previously considered William Davis Homes’ housing scheme in a more rural area of Dunston.

Residents and Dunston Grange Action Group had objected to the William Davis Homes’ planning application on 34 hectares of agricultural fields on the basis of over-development, congestion and traffic safety concerns, feared flooding, the strain on health services and schools, as well as the loss of greenfield land and wildlife.

Dunston Grange Action Group and protestors argued there had been over 1,400 objections to the Wiiliam Davis Homes’ planning application.

By contrast, Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning documents revealed that there was only one written objection concerning the separate planning application for the apartment block.