Village Voice
CYCLING SCHOOL
No 256 March 2014
Melbourne & District
CYCLO cross came to Melbourne Junior School courtesy of Cycle Derby, who visit schools to provide cycle training and coaching. With 20 cyclo cross bikes provided for the event, the coaches led the children in groups, instructing how to take part in massed starts, cornering and other techniques in 80-minute sessions. In a school day the coaches can run four sessions, and at Melbourne 65 pupils took part. Although Cycle Derby operates within Derby city, the service is available to deliver to schools outside the city boundary if they wish to take advantage of the scheme at a modest charge. School playing fields or local parks are used and courses are set up in many different shapes, normally no longer than 500 metres. Pictured are pupils from Melbourne Junior School with cyclo cross racing bikes and coaches Nathan Miller, Tom Butcher and Anne Staley.
CHANGING TIMES Need for new homes may hit area’s ‘character’
newton fallowell
raising the standard of estate agency
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INSIDE STORIES
Bollywood comes to town – Page 8
Stuart’s rooftop world – Page 10
by DAVID BELLIS
CHANGES are in the air – and those being planned in the Melbourne/King's Newton area look likely to be radical and far reaching. For many years, the Melbourne Civic Society, backed by the parish council, and firmly supported by South Derbyshire District Council, has had in place a policy to protect the special ambience and "village" character of Melbourne. There have been constant statements over the years from district councillors that there would be no large scale developments allowed in the parish, and at a District Council Area Meeting in February, the policy was reiterated by Councillor Peter Watson. This admirable policy was protected by agreed local strategic plans which stopped large scale developments, and would only accommodate "fill-in" building. However, the whole local planning policy has been put in jeopardy by plans for the South Derbyshire area to find space for huge numbers of houses – 28,000 over the next 20 years – south of the city of Derby. A new strategic plan is being prepared, but will not be available and finalised until late summer of this year. An application for nine houses on a vegetable field on Main Street in King's Newton has been rejected by the district council, but that decision is being appealed. The Government inspector's report will be watched
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with huge local interest, as a go-ahead could open the flood gates for many of the fields and open spaces, especially in King's Newton (to be used for housing development). A further 70 houses are planned by Persimmon, the national building firm, on a site to the west of the Packhorse Inn; the developers state that a full planning application will be put to the district council this month. No detailed plans are yet available, but there are local concerns that the whole village character of King's Newton will be changed forever. Over 30 years ago a Government inspector allowed an appeal to build Oaklands Way, but laid down a marker that the essential character of King's Newton
should be protected, as it was clearly a separate community within the wider Melbourne parish. Meanwhile, an application for four homes, as well as a rebuild of the two centuries' old Melbourne Arms, will forever change the approach to the town on Ashby Road. With the new homes already in build on Ashby Road, the approach into Melbourne will be irrevocably changed. With the approved development of 500 houses to the north of the A50, opposite to the Bonnie Prince pub, the immediate urgency is for sufficient school capacity to be available to serve the new population in South Derbyshire. Certainly, for South Derbyshire, secondary school capacity is a serious problem, given that Chellaston Academy is full, as are other schools like John Port, and the secondary schools in Swadlincote. There is no doubt that new homes are desperately required in the whole Derby region. This expansion of homes to meet planned growth will risk changing the whole character of the Melbourne area. One issue is the perennial traffic problem within Melbourne. Everyone knows it is a problem, which can only be made worse by more houses being built. Melbourne Parish Council has arranged a public meeting to be addressed by a proven international traffic expert, full details of which are on Page 6. n Field of dreams? – Page 7
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Birthday brass for John – Page 13
Janine’s Games in Sochi – Page 18
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