Issue - meetings

The Assistant Director of Development and Planning and the Business Growth Manager presented a review of Bolsover Town Centre Framework, acknowledging the Committee’s original review plan to take each town area in turn.

Officers noted that when completing the recent Levelling Up Bid the Framework could not be relied upon due to the age of the document, and additional work had been commissioned to develop the proposals in the Bid.

As agreed at the previous meeting, officers had produced a scorecard analysing progress against the various elements of the Framework. On reflection the Framework document hadn’t guided development and many elements remained undelivered, as the document had been aspirational in nature requiring additional buy-in from Town and Parish Councils to engage in development plans themselves. Where funding had not been in place, many ideas had been difficult to deliver.

It was noted that the previous Regeneration Frameworks to some extent also sat outside a wider strategy for development and there was not a bank of costed projects ready to put forward to support the area.

Officers confirmed that Consultation had recently taken place prior to the Bids being submitted and this showed that there was lots of interest from residents and business owners in redevelopment of the town centre.

During the Q and A session, Members raised a number of concerns in relation to the strategic housing developments taking place and their impact on the locality.

Q: Are there plans in place to widen the highway near to the new developments commencing off Welbeck Road, as a recent journey taken had shown that the road could not accommodate extra traffic.

A: The Assistant Director of Development & Planning noted that there was lots of detail in the Local Plan in relation to required highways improvements but that this required a lead from DCC Highways. An original plan had been to develop a road through the old Sherwood Lodge site as part of its redevelopment in order to try and improve traffic flow. Members were asked to consider to what extent they wanted to reduce traffic within the centre potentially via a Park & Ride option.

Q: People within the locality are particularly struggling with transport provision which was impacting access to the secondary school for young people and elderly accessing medical appointments. There was a significant lack of taxi companies locally which compounded the issue.

A: While the Local Plan and the Framework talk about active travel options, highways infrastructure has always been outside of the Framework. While the Council is aware of DCC Improvement Plan and officers are working with County particularly on bus service improvements and the concept of direct response travel via a mini-bus service. Officers are also looking at options for active travel services in Bolsover, Shirebrook and Clowne via bikes/scooters etc.

Q: There is currently a real concern that Bolsover is being overdeveloped through the sites for Bolsover North and Keepmoat without sufficient infrastructure being added. There are serious sewage problems where the network clearly cannot  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28