Councillors are perturbed at 70-home plans which they feel would kill all the birds and toads on a site close to the border with North West Leicestershire.

At a South Derbyshire District Council meeting last night (Tuesday), plans to agree the final details for 70 homes on a 300-home site off Occupation Lane and the new "bypass" in Woodville were deferred for the second time this month.

The developer, Northamptonshire-based Barwood Homes, applied to tie up the first phase of the overall development on the former Dyson Coal and Clay Workings, with the outline scheme having been granted permission in 2019.

They also applied to reduce the amount of space which would be provided for biodiversity improvements, with the council now encouraging a 10 per cent boost in wildlife habitats through approved development.

Future phases of the development will eventually include a new supermarket, restaurant or fast-food outlet, a pub and thousands of square metres of new office space and storage and distribution warehouses.

This will cover the whole site stretching either side of the new Swadlincote to Woodville Regeneration Route, commonly referred to as the new bypass, which opened in December 2021 – largely built to pave the way for the site's development.

However, during discussions over the first phase council officers were told that for the developer to meet the biodiversity space requirements it would risk making the first phase of the scheme unviable and unimplementable.

They said they would have to reduce the homes on the first plot by 25 homes from 70 to 45 properties in order to allocate enough space on the site itself.

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Councillors raised fears about plans for the site off Occupation Lane near Ashby de la Zouch. Photo: BBC LDRS

Instead, it has asked to shift more of this off-site and retain space on site for 70 homes, the vast majority of which would be detached and most would be three or four-bed houses.

Councillors took a dim view of what they felt was a conscious choice to "prioritise" houses over wildlife.

Cllr Amy Wheelton said: "You're basically telling us to kill these birds and toads so we can build all of these homes.

"You're going to kill everything there and once it is gone it is gone.

"What is going to happen to the birds and toads you are going to kill? We're telling them all to go off-site are we? I don't want the linnets and skylarks to have to sit in a SUDs (drainage) pond instead of grassland."

Cllr Kerry Haines said: "It does feel like we are prioritising houses over the priority birds and other species. Perhaps we could take less houses on this site."

Cllr Steve Taylor said there was an expectation from the community for biodiversity to be retained on the site, particularly when it is already in place – as opposed to being introduced – and not for it to be reallocated on another site in the parish, council ward or district.

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He said: "It is an urban area that already has a wildlife corridor and it is quite disappointing to see this removed.

"It is entirely unacceptable and does not match this council's corporate ideals.

"I am very much opposed to the destruction of habitat, I am very much opposed to it being moved elsewhere and I am very much in favour with carrying out this development as it was originally planned."

He said the site had already dropped any affordable housing plans due to the cost of developing the former coal and clay works, and now needed the developers to fulfil what it agreed to.

Cllr Peter Watson said: "The developer is saying they will have to lose 25 houses of the 70 if we don't do this, well I think they should still lose the 25 houses and accept the reality of it and then there will be no need for a biodiversity net gain agreement at all.

"It it just cloud and smoke, blinding us with science and fails to enable us to make a decision on what we have got in front of us."

Stuart Hammond, a district council planning officer, said the scheme "tightly" matched what had been approved in the overall plan and that biodiversity on the site had been "maximised".

He said: "There are instances when it is not realistic to accommodate it on-site.

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"It is not possible to develop the remaining houses with 25 homes less, that is what I understand.

"Our policies allow for off-site biodiversity net gain and the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust do not object and this could stall the development."

The issue was deferred for a second time, after also being deferred at a meeting on August 8, for further discussions, including a plan from Cllr Wheelton for a possible site-wide landscape plan, instead of this being produced phase by phase