Campaigner believes it is “absolutely necessary” for a Chesterfield developer to help fund paths and bridge

Lisa Hopkinson, of Transition Chesterfield – which raises awareness of climate change and promotes walking and cycling as green travel options – gave a speech at the recent Public Inquiry which will decide accessibility and funding issues concerning a planning application for 144 homes at Chesterfield’s Tapton Business Park.

Woodall Homes Ltd, of Chesterfield, appealed for the Public Inquiry after Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning committee had left the developers’ application “non-determined” and after the council had also called for some funding towards footpaths and a new bridge – despite indicating it is minded to approve the scheme subject to these conditions.

Transition Chesterfield campaigner Ms Hopkinson told the Public Inquiry on Tuesday, September 19: “We have previously made submissions on this application and other previous applications at Waterside and the need for proper provision for children and adults to walk and cycle safely to and from the site. Linking new sites to existing walking and cycling infrastructure should not be viewed as an optional extra for developers, but is as fundamental as road infrastructure.

“We don’t accept planning applications with roads that don’t properly link up with the highway network, so why should we accept applications that don’t properly link up with the strategic walking and cycling network?

“Surely people who walk, wheel or cycle, some of our most vulnerable road users should be given the same priority as car drivers in the planning system?

“The equivalent of not upgrading the adjacent footpaths and bridges, would be like allowing a developer to build a housing development linked to unpaved roads.”

Woodall Homes’s planning application involves demolishing buildings on the brownfield site on Brimington Road, Chesterfield, and building 83 dwellings, 41 apartments, and 20 flats over garages with ground floor commercial units and landscaping.

But the council has made requests from the developers as part of a Section 106 agreement including improvements to off-site footpaths, providing an on-site open space, and that a share of any surplus finance should go towards improvements to Brewery Street and Brimington Road, and that land should be safeguarded for any possible new bridge.

Woodall Homes is challenging whether the requested requirements comply with Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 and it is arguing that these should “fall away” as obligations upon the developer.

The proposed 2.59 hectare site is part of the council’s overall Chesterfield Waterside Regeneration plans to support jobs, restore the canal and river and to essentially improve access with footpaths and a cycle network.

Council planning officers originally flagged-up the need to improve footpaths around the site and that a new, replacement bridge was needed between Riverside East and the Waterfront areas.

They subsequently requested the developers help fund an improved pedestrian riverside footpath and cycle route alongside Riverside Park, fund improved secondary pedestrian streets connecting Brimington Road with the riverside, and provide £1.275m towards a new, upgraded £1.7m pedestrian bridge across the River Rother, as well as help path improvements that could cost as much as £131,750.

But Woodall Homes argued during a planning committee meeting in July that it cannot be responsible for matters beyond its site boundary and that to invest in additional work would not be financially viable and would leave a deficit.

Woodall Homes Planning Director Darren Abbott stated at the committee meeting that the developers would be providing some connections to the site and that, despite not being able to invest wholly in additional work, they may be able to help in some way towards future plans for improved paths and a new bridge.

Ms Hopkinson argued that most new households moving to the site may have to contend with “an obstacle course” if they are trying to access facilities on foot or by bicycle such as schools, GP services, shops or the library.

She added some of these facilities are to the west of the site which means crossing “an obstacle course” over the existing bridge over the A61 and some are in the town centre which will mean walking up to Brimington Road or along Holbeck Close.

Ms Hopkinson said: “It would be better to facilitate the use of footpaths or cycling routes as a first choice to access services and facilities rather than using the car – which would then add to traffic congestion, air pollution and danger for pedestrians. Even getting to the train station nearby for travel to work is not a particularly welcome route for residents.”

She added that to get to Abercrombie Primary School on the other side of the A61, residents could use a path on the estate but then they would have to join a narrow, often muddy towpath before crossing a narrow pedestrian bridge barely wide enough for a double-buggy and then have to take the pedestrian bridge over the A61 up a hill and across Sheffield Road.

Ms Hopkinson said that getting to Chesterfield College poses “the same awkward journey” to get across the A61 and if anyone wanted to cycle along this route they would have to walk their bike along part of a muddy towpath and negotiate that same narrow pedestrian bridge.

She added: “If the plans for this development are approved in their current form, then walking and cycling will not be the natural first choice.

Ms Hopkinson said: “Their route will be an obstacle course to be endured.”

Transition Chesterfield has previously argued the scheme does not support the area’s Local Plan policies or the Waterside or Government policies on walking and cycling.

Ms Hopkinson also stated that the scheme records as a “fail” on the travel section of a local authorities’ climate change planning assessment tool.

She added: “In view of all of this the developer should be required to make a financial contribution to ensure that the site is properly integrated with its surroundings and the existing and future walking and cycling network.”

Ms Hopkinson argued the existing narrow pedestrian bridge is wholly inadequate and requires serious improvement, along with the widening and improvement of footpaths adjacent to the site all the way up to Brimington Road, and a contribution is needed towards a new bridge across the Rother to link up with the primary walking and cycling route through Waterside.

She added: “This is both necessary and appropriate to ensure that future residents have both good walking and cycling access within the site, and good links to the wider network, which is what the Masterplan and Local Plan policies require.”

Inspector Thomas Hatfield, who oversaw the Public Inquiry at Chesterfield Town Hall to address whether the development’s accessibility arrangements are compliant with planning policy, is due to make a decision concerning the planning application on October 26.