Their highest profile campaign to date concerns proposals by French company Saint Gobain to build a `super-village`, provisionally named New Stanton, on the site of the former Stanton Iron Works, which closed in May 2007.
Anyone looking for background information might like to seek out two articles of my own, A Tale of Two Ironworks (6 February 2010) and Ironworks Revisited (21 Fenruary 2010), both of which appear online at Bookshelves and Brown Ale.
To give a short recap, campaigner`s concerns have centred around two areas ;
1) The routes to be taken by proposed new roads to service the village (one option considered by the developers was to simply put a major new road straight through the Derbyshire green belt, though it is possible they deliberately included a controversial option to make other routes seem less objectionable).
2) The need to provide a balance between commercial and residential premises on the site. It seems the developers had intended to favour residential buildings with only token provision of buildings for business use. After a sustained and effective campaign by Greensqueeze the local authority effectively fired a warning shot by indicating publicly that they would require a balanced approach by planners if permission was to be given.
The public consultation has now taken place, and Greensqueeze are indicating that they feel their major questions remain unanswered.
Planning officials and councillors are likely to take careful note of the campaign`s concerns, given that it has attracted support from an unusually wide range of people, including environmentalists, former industrial workers, local residents and farmers.
One proposed route for the road-building has sparked anger in nearby Nottinghamshire. A proposed link road which would pass through Trowell, Notts and link `New Stanton` to the A6007 is bitterly opposed by Liberal Democrat Councillor Ken Rigby, who sits on both Trowell Parish Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. The forthright Mr Rigby feels that Erewash is "dumping it`s rubbish on Trowell", and states that the road will be built "over my dead body".
Greensqueeze can be found at http://www.greensqueeze.org.uk/ .
Also interesting is http://www.stantonironworks.co.uk/
In addition to A Tale of Two Ironworks and Iroworks revisited, two other articles are interesting ;
Dave Wade - Stanton Road Plan Sparks Village Fury - Ilkeston Advertiser, 1 July 2010
Amy Hirst - Is This the Future of Stanton ? - Ilkeston Today & Ilkeston Advertiser, 10 June 2010
both to be found at http://www.ilkestonadvertiser.co.uk/ .
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