PLANS for hundreds of homes on green-belt land in Borrowash have been branded "crazy".
The outline plans would see 291 homes built, about 100 of which would be low-cost housing, built on agricultural land north of Derby Road as visitors enter the village from Spondon.
The site would be accessed by one road and would also include a care home, creche and business units.
But Borrowash councillor Mike Wallis insists that the plans are not appropriate for the village.
He said: "The plans are crazy. It is a bolt-on to the village.
"The piece of green belt that it is being built on is one of the last remaining buffers between the village and Derby.
"If you look at the old A52, there are only a few parts of land that have not been built on.
"Eventually if we carry on like this, villages around Derby, like Borrowash and Little Eaton, will be subsumed into Derby, which is not what we want.
"We want the village to keep its character and this development is totally out of keeping with that."
According to the company behind the plans, the reason for the application is the need for houses in Erewash, the planning authority within which Borrowash lies.
Ken Gorman, director of KPG Design Associates Ltd, said: ''The main driver for this application is the much-publicised housing shortage and the historical under-delivery of housing by the local planning authority.
''It has been noted that the authority (Erewash Borough Council) had identified sufficient land to meet their five-year housing supply target and this is acknowledged by the Planning Inspector in his 2014 report.
"However, in the final paragraphs of that report he expresses doubts that the identified land will be deliverable – 56% of the land in question does not have planning permission and one of the main reasons that brown-fields site plans fail is due to reluctant land owners."
However Mr Wallis does not believe that building on green belt is needed when brown-field sites are available to be built on.
He said: "Brown-field sites will accommodate 90% of the housing needed in the borough.
"The land is important to the village and something that should be kept."
One of the other areas of the plan about which Mr Wallis was concerned, a worry voiced by other local people too, is the traffic increase on an already-congested road.
He said: "If you have ever tried to get through the village at rush hour, you will know that it is a nightmare.
"I can only see the plan making this worse, especially with just one road in and out."
The traffic management scheme in the plan states that the actual impact at the junction is terms of traffic equates to an increase of between "4% and 5% at peak times.
Mr Gorman was at pains to stress that all the plans, apart from the road, have been submitted under reserved matters and that they could be changed.
If plans were approved, a "substantial amount of money" would be given to the area under a developer contribution known as Section 106.
An organisation has been formed to protest against the plans, called Borrowash Action Group. It is holding a meeting at the Methodist Church, Nottingham Road, Borrowash at 7.30 tomorrow night.
