Boulton Moor set to get new football pitches, pavilion and allotments

Aerial view of the proposed site
-Credit:Google


Sports pitches and leisure facilities to support a new Derby suburb including hundreds of homes are set for approval, but there are concerns it will not be financially viable. The scheme, from Persimmon Homes North Midlands, would see two full-size football pitches, a junior football pitch, a sports pavilion, a cricket square and three acres of allotment space built next to the A6 in Boulton Moor.

If approved by South Derbyshire District Council, the facilities would sit on land named the Triangle next to the Thulston Roundabout and the grand historic entrance for Elvaston Castle and are to serve the 2,600 homes being built and approved in the new suburb. The planned allotment space would be to replace the existing long-standing allotments in Shardlow Road, which will become a 250-home housing estate.

In response to the application, Chellaston Leisure Limited claims the income from the two full-size football pitches would not cover the cost of running the pavilion or maintenance of the pitches themselves. It writes: “This would be the same for the council or any other organisation operating the building. The small-sided pitch would have very little use.

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“Currently small-sided games for younger aged groups are played at central venues within the city. The most profitable solution would be to create two fenced in full-size floodlit 3G pitches. However, the cost of creating these probably prohibits this option.”

Council officers, recommending approval at a meeting on Tuesday, January 28, write: “There is a level of local concern and opposition to the scheme on relevant planning grounds including limited design, basic facilities, loss of green belt land, flooding concerns, and landscaping concerns. The required removal of mature trees weighs against the proposal, however the benefits of the scheme in relation to the provision of accessible sport and recreation facilities to benefit the local community are considered to outweigh these concerns.”

Two weeks ago, councillors had raised concerns that hundreds of homes in the Boulton Moor development had already been built and approved before the building of almost all of the supporting infrastructure. This included the replacement allotments, which councillors argued should have been set aside first, before allowing homes on the current site.

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Last week, final details for the planned transport hub to serve the new development, off Chellaston Lane, were submitted to the council. Meanwhile, late last year, plans for a cycling and footbridge over the A6 from one of the housing estates to the Triangle site were submitted to the council and are yet to be decided.

Boulton Moor phase one, totalling 1,058 was approved in 2009; phase two for 550 homes and a primary school was approved in 2019; phase three with 250 homes was approved this year and phase four (named Snelsmoor Grange) with 800 homes was approved in 2019. Approval has also been granted in 2022 for a petrol station, shops, two drive-through restaurants and a medium-sized supermarket.

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