Ultra-modern 'green' housing estate which 'puts people before cars' planned for Derbyshire

Much of the area would be communal with shared spaces

An ultra-modern “green” housing estate where residents would be encouraged to make friends with neighbours and “people would come before cars” is being proposed for Derbyshire.

The plans are for a “customisable” communal housing project including 36 homes in Belper – aimed at promoting low carbon and shared living.

The application, from Hothouse Cohousing, Futures Housing Group, Angela Clayton and Philip Waterfall, would see 25 houses and 11 flats built on disused allotments off Holbrook Road.

Papers submitted with the application say the development would have “an emphasis on communal spaces and a low carbon lifestyle” and would be “a place where people come before cars”.

It would sit opposite St Swithun’s Church and stretch down the road to the south of the town.

Amber Valley Borough Council will make a decision on the plans in the next few months.

Hothouse has teamed up with Futures Housing Group, a housing association, for the scheme, which intends to offer many of the homes for affordable rent and shared ownership.

It aims to repeat the success of another co-housing project in Marmalade Lane, Cambridge, which contains 42 homes with shared gardens and a raft of community facilities.

The Cambridge development won a slew of design and sustainability awards.

Residents worked with the development’s architects to customise each of the homes before they were built – leading to 42 different houses.

All of the Cambridge homes have triple glazing and are heated through air-source heat pumps.

The Belper site has been seven years in the making with Hothouse forming from a group of friends and neighbours in Derbyshire and Nottingham and becoming a formal company in 2014.

In 2019 the organisation was given a grant from Homes England to carry out surveys on the Holbrook site, working with Futures.

A statement submitted with the Belper application by Letts Wheeler Architects, on behalf of the applicants, says: “Alongside the high quality, sympathetically-designed modern eco homes and thoughtful landscaping, this site is planned to become home to Belper’s first cohousing community; further cementing Belper’s reputation as a progressive and vibrant place to live and demonstrating its commitment to a sustainable future.

“As stated by the UK Cohousing network, ‘cohousing communities are intentional communities, created and run by their residents’.

“This way of designing communities is relatively new but growing fast in the UK.

“Our scheme incorporates private dwellings with shared communal external play and food growing spaces.

“It is also our hope to utilise the lower ground level of the flats for a social enterprise bike workshop and tool store with a small meeting place / summer house planned for the lower gardens – depending on funding & approval from the Futures board.

“Their (between Hothouse and Futures) shared goal is to create an outstanding, affordable, sustainable, community-led scheme for the wider Belper community and Hothouse members if possible by 2022.”

On its website, Hothouse says the scheme would be a “cohousing community where each household has their own private home and benefits from shared community space and resources”.

Unlike the Cambridge scheme, most the homes would have private gardens but there would be shared social and green spaces for residents on the scheme to meet up, with a central pedestrianised courtyard overlooked by all of the homes.

There would also be two viewing points to look out into the countryside and Milford Mill Chimney.

Alongside this there would be “car free zones” with shared parking areas with electric charging points.

There would be a raft of allotment space for use by residents on the development – managed by Hothouse.

It is intended to be a “place where you can get to know your neighbours and share resources”.

There would be a “calendar of activities/events” for those living on the site and some for the wider community.

Each of the properties would be low-carbon and would have solar panels on their roofs.

Every household would have a designated car parking space with an electric charging port while there would be a number of extra spots for guests and “potential carpool” – with 41 spots in total.

Not all of the flats would have private gardens but the aim is that these residents could use the shared spaces available.

There would be a “shared space at the heart of the scheme designed to bring the residents together – to encourage social interaction whilst discouraging cars”.

The site would have a small play area, public seating area and community garden.

Plans for the scheme show that Hothouse would own 12 of the properties, 10 of which would be customisable homes and two would be customisable flats.

The remaining 24 would be owned by Futures.

Of these, eight would be three-bed houses, seven would be two-bed houses, four would be two-bed flats (two of which would be wheelchair accessible) and five would be one-bed flats.

So far, 15 objection letters have been submitted by residents, almost entirely in opposition based on access, parking and traffic concerns.

They say the “blind bend” on which the development access would be is already a “death trap” with frequent near misses and claim the scheme would be a “recipe for disaster”.

Residents say the street is often clogged with “ridiculous” parking either side of the road, which already causes a “great deal of frustration” and feel this issue could be worsened by the development.

However, residents generally welcome the scheme itself and the reuse of the disused site – but fear access issues make it unviable.

One supporting resident wrote: “It’s about time there was some progressive and sustainable development in the town.

“It’s refreshing to see contemporary architectural design rather than reactionary garbage that is usually submitted.”