The plans for 105 extra homes on the former American Adventure site come as most of the site has been completed
The proposed site of the extra 105 homes on what was supposed to become a garden centre, leisure complex and office space(Image: Derby Telegraph)
Efforts to add more houses to a Derbyshire theme park regeneration site a decade into construction have been slammed as a “disgusting” attempt to “move the goalposts”.
Earlier this month, Owl Homes submitted plans to Amber Valley Borough Council to build 105 homes on part of the former American Adventure site, now known as the Shipley Lakeside development.
This intended 105-home addition follows years of controversy over the ongoing redevelopment of the former theme park and coal mine, with the site granted permission for 307 homes and a slew of supporting services in early 2016.
This was nine years after the former theme park closed in 2007. It was eventually sold by landowners Derbyshire County Council, which owns the site as part of the neighbouring Shipley Country Park, to developers Waystone, despite a significant public campaign.
If approved in the next few months, the new housing total would be 412 homes, at the expense of a long-planned leisure complex, employment area and garden centre on the western section of the redevelopment.
Since 2016, Waystone Developments, who have been contracted by Derbyshire County Council to redevelop the 114-acre brownfield site, have won further detailed planning permissions for 302 homes, most of which have now been constructed and many of which are occupied.
This also includes a three-storey 66-bed care home which opened in September.
In September 2020, plans to dump the excavated soil from the former theme park and coal mine onto the neighbouring Shipley Country Park, in the Green Belt, to form a 2km mountain bike track, were rejected by the borough council.
After that, in June 2023, the borough council rejected plans to expand the part of the site intended for the leisure complex, employment area and garden centre into the neighbouring country park in order to make way for a diverted watercourse stemming from Osborne’s Pond and Coppice Lake.
This, the county council and Waystone said, was to provide emergency measures in the form of a 22-metre wide floodwater channel to cater for a potential catastrophic dam collapse – with Osborne’s Pond classified as a reservoir.
That application was approved by a Government inspector in May 2024 despite 390 objections from residents.
Now, Owl Homes wants to adapt that same piece of land, which now eats into the Green Belt, for 105 houses.
Debra Farmer, who has lived in Pit Lane, the Shipley Lakeside site entrance road, for 36 years, said: “I think it is disgusting that they are allowed to keep changing the goalposts.
“This will be nothing but trouble. They need to do their due diligence with all the threats about flooding.
“This all should have been applied for in the first place. It is not right.
“I understand the need for houses but this could have been something beautiful instead.”
A further resident, who has lived in Pit Lane since 2023, said the dust and traffic from the site have been “awful” and said the unadopted site access road, which is full of potholes, needs repairing.
A Shipley resident who lives close to the “cut” used by the former coal mining works, said traffic had worsened but that “you can’t stop progress”.
He said: “We can’t keep looking back into history and saying it was better then.
“They aren’t going to obliterate anything. You can’t put back what is taken away, but everyone is fighting a battle.
“People need houses and they have got to put them somewhere.”
Julie Gibb, who has lived in the area for 40 years, said: “American Adventure is gone and it isn’t coming back. They are building housing everywhere and people have got to live somewhere.”
Philip Dennis, an engineer who has lived near the site for two years, said traffic past the site had worsened significantly, including speeding at 60mph, and said infrastructure needed improving first before new homes.
“It is just typical really,” said Leni Cooper, who has lived in the village since 1979, “this is now the thick end of the wedge, it is so blatant”.
She said: “This is no sort of advantage for us, it is more of a disadvantage.”
A Shipley resident of 12 years said the site ought to have been retained for wildlife and bemoaned the lack of infrastructure for housing.
If approved, the 105-home development, on a higher part of the site, would include 84 market homes and 21 social housing properties, comprising 17 two-bed homes, 61 three-bed homes, and 27 homes with four beds or more.
Waystone and Owl Homes were both approached for comment but have not responded.
Documents submitted by Owl Homes said: “We consider that overall, there are no effects resulting from these development proposals, which carry substantial weight in the planning balance that would amount to significant and demonstrable harm.
“The positive benefits of these new homes would be substantial in the overall planning balance.
“The site benefits from an outline planning permission for new homes and mixed use development. The site is ready now and deliverable.
“The proposals would contribute positively to the three pillars of sustainability being a brownfield site, with new jobs arising from the construction work, the delivery of energy efficient new homes, the inclusion of sustainable features such as electric car charging points and secure cycle storage and contributions towards community infrastructure.”