By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Plans for new homes and apartments either side of Colliery Way have been given the green light despite a series of concerns they will be ‘detrimental’ to the area.
Killarney Homes submitted plans to build eight detached homes and three buildings featuring 29 apartments at the junction of Colliery Way and Mapperley Plains.
They were approved by nine votes to six at a Gedling Borough Council Planning Committee meeting on July 27.
All Conservative Group councillors opposed the plans.
During the meeting Cllr Stuart Bestwick (Con) and Cllr Mike Adams (Con) raised issue with how the buildings will look within the current environment.
Cllr Bestwick said: “I have several issues with this development really.
“I believe this development is detrimental to the amenity of the area and of an incongruent appearance.
“Some of these buildings are three-storey blocks of flats at the top of the Gedling Access Road, overlooking the entire Gedling valley area, visible from the valley below.
“For want of a better analogy they are going to stick out like a sore thumb.
“With all due respect to the architects, they are not exactly pretty, are they?”
Cllr Adams added: “Is this really what we want in those key locations?”
Three detached homes and an apartment building featuring six flats will be built on the eastern part of the land, next to Clementine Drive and on one side of Colliery Way.
Five detached homes will also be built on the western side and accessed via a private drive from Mapperley Plains.
These will sit next to the 3rd Woodthorpe Scout Hut, alongside two more blocks including 11 apartments in one block and 12 in the other.
Ron Hodges, a resident objector speaking on behalf of 3rd Woodthorpe Scout Group as a trustee, said the group wanted assurances that a 25-year-old hedgerow, which acts as a natural safety barrier for children at the scout hut, be retained.
The Pepperpots Scout Hut survived the building of the £49m bypass and has been located in the same area next to the historic ‘pepperpots’, which acted as ventilation shafts for Mapperley Tunnel below the site, for 50 years.
He said: “We’ve never had housing so close to us as is proposed with this development.
“Our concern is that this leads to demand that we reduce or even completely cease our activities.
“One might imagine an estate agent tries to sell a property here as an idyllic retreat on the outskirts of Nottingham, and then people move in and actually find they can hear young people.
“We ask Gedling Borough Council to issue a public statement that they will continue to support the use of Pepperpots as a site for young people.”
A council officer said the scheme would have “no impact on the trees or hedges” and assurances were given.
However, an acoustic fence which existing residents living next to Colliery Way had fought to have put in place, will be removed.
If the fence remained it would hinder residents’ views and removing it would improve the look of the streets, council officers said.
Council officers say a noise report indicates the new buildings will act as a “better” barrier in place of the acoustic fence.
