Two weeks into the year and 2026 has already been full of planning issues facing the village and wider parish.
The Good
The Tollerton Neighbourhood Plan says that new development should make a positive contribution to local character and sense of place. New housing can help younger residents get on the property ladder, or help more elderly residents downsize.
Despite recent experiences of poor quality planning applications and masterplans, there are plenty of examples of where small infill sites – close, court and mews – have made a really positive contribution to Tollerton.
The Neighbourhood Plan seeks good design so that where any new development does go ahead in the village, it works for the village.
The Bad
Land behind Burnside Grove. For the many reasons listed by residents in the detailed responses submitted to the planning application this proposal would be bad for the village.
The Parish Council has submitted a detailed and robust response setting out the concerns with the application and why it does not work for the village. The Parish Council’s response is set out below:
Unfortunately this is just one of a number of possible applications for large sites around the village. In January new information was published as part of the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan showing developer interest in a number of fields around Tollerton. Over the coming weeks the Parish Council will be updating its website to offer as much information as possible on each of these.
The best way for any landowner, developer or promoter of these sites to avoid bad planning is to use the neighbourhood plan and engage with residents in a meaningful way to find what works and what does not.
(Hint: increasing housing by 20%+ with a single access through the middle of the village does not work)
The Ugly
the Rushcliffe Borough Council Masterplan for 4000+ houses in Tollerton!
It is very clear that this is not a planning application! It is an incomplete plan prepared by Rushcliffe Borough Council to add site specific detail beyond that in the Rushcliffe Local Plan.
The proposed development site is larger that the airfield including multiple fields and a mixture of land owners and builders. In this context it is vital that the masterplan provides a framework for issues that cross those invisible land ownership boundaries – travel and access; flooding; the green buffer – to ensure consistency across the whole site – a masterplan for development.
In January Rushcliffe published a new version of the masterplan which includes a small number of changes based on the consultation. Having reviewed these, the Parish Council is pleased to see that the masterplan will now recognise the significant role that the Tollerton Neighbourhood Plan should have in shaping any planning applications for this site. The recognition is brief and it is disappointing that this omission had to be pointed out.
Following pressure from residents, campaigners and the parish council, Rushcliffe cabinet members have also paused the approval process for the masterplan until early March. There are still many gaps in the masterplan and the Parish Council will be calling on Rushcliffe to use this time wisely to address the outstanding concerns of residents and improve on the masterplan. It is Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Masterplan and they can change it.
At this stage good might be too much to hope for, but it doesn’t have to be ugly.