Our Organisation
With so much information to digest, and knowledge to build and share in a relatively short period of time, we are organised around :
Green Belt
Understanding the green belt policy, noting the recent changes that introduce grey belt, how the land was graded in 2016/17 and how it has been graded now (pending 2026 green belt review). What, if anything has changed, and understanding any changes in the context of the policy.
Environment and ecology
Which animals and species use the site, how they use it (moving, feeding etc), when they use it and how frequently. What impact could there be in replacing fields with houses.
Infrastructure and utilities
Understanding capacity, and Section 106 policy to offset impact, as well as the potential use of SuDS on the site; how they work and
Highways
Highways policy for the impact of development on the road network, and safety considerations for pedestrians, noting that the site is close to one primary school and is adjacent to a walking route for Henry Fanshawe.
Impact on the landscape.
Landscape policies and frameworks, character of the area and the role the landscape has to play, as well as the topography and visibility of the site from the surrounding area.
A common thread through all of these is Planning policy, such as the recently updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and what it stipulates for how Local Authorities should assess proposals.
Planning policy is not a standalone concept, and the above groups allow us to consider other policies such as education, highways design, green belt purposes and environmental assessments.
Due to the historical use of land in and around Dronfield, we are also interested in the impact of Mining and Geology. While previously mined land has seen development across the district, and in Dronfield, there are approaches to how mine shafts are managed, and how developments are assessed which we need to hold organisations to account for full consideration.
Please use the Get Involved form to contact us if you want to help out in any of these areas, or have other ideas. You don’t need to be an expert, or have any prior knowledge, just able to spare a bit of time reading, and sharing. If you do have specific knowledge, expertise, or research you have in these areas, we would love to hear from you!
Actions
To manage the workload, we have a large volume of active and backlogged actions across the leadership group. To progress these, we need support from the community in a variety of capacities, some of which are:
Researching current policies, across planning, education, highways, drainage (SuDS) etc to augment what we’ve ascertained to-date
Getting out and about to record traffic volumes along key routes, in to and away from both the site and Dronfield
Collate evidence across highways constraints and issues, such as access challenges for both vehicles and pedestrians, as well as historical evidence of incidents to understand levels of risk associated to current routes. This extends across Dronfield, to understand the cumulative impact of development.
Using local knowledge to collate photos of the site as it looks now from various vantage points. Apperknowle and Hundall have already been identified, but we are keen to collect more, and are interested in what the visible distance is of the site
Researching and collating information on comparable sites, locally and nationally using news articles, but also websites and/or social media sites of similar groups.
Managing, developing and improving our communications approach and strategy
September 2026
On the 17th, North East Derbyshire Council released their draft Local Plan which will soon open for a 6 week long consultation.
Our understanding is that, responses to the consultation will be submitted, along with the draft, to the Planning Inspector who will undertake a review which can involve a quasi-judicial public inquiry.
We are still waiting for Boningales to submit a planning application, be it Outline for a full detailed plan.
The current focus is :
understanding what is in the draft Plan
understanding how it sits with the National Planning Policy Framework, and local policies, to identify areas of material interest (i.e. green belt rating)
summarising the information into accessible formats
Newsletter and Call To Action
Starting September 2026, we started publishing a newsletter to share with you key updates, to help with knowing how you can help. If you have any questions, offers for help, or just want to get a newsletter, Contact Us and let us know!
September 2026