A huge new link road has been built in the north of Nottinghamshire so up to 1,700 homes and a new school can be built. According to a council leader the development is already attracting people from as far as London and the south east.
The Lindhurst development, a £250 million site being built in Mansfield to the south of Berry Hill, will expand upon the existing north Nottinghamshire community and mining town to provide a new school, medical centre, retail outlets and homes.
Phase one has already been completed and included the construction of 520 homes, which were built by Avant Homes, Bellway, David Wilson and Barrett. These have now mostly sold out.
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And now as part of the second phase, where another 500 homes will be built alongside a new local centre and primary school, a lengthy new 'spine road' has been constructed.
The new one-kilometre spine road, which cost £3m, goes through the centre of the site linking it to the Adamsway roundabout on the A6117. It has been funded by local enterprise partnership D2N2.
Richard Bowden, project representative for Lindhurst, told Nottinghamshire Live the site is "already beginning to become a community". He said: "Phase two is the meat of the site. It is where all of the facilities will be based because it is in the middle of the site.
"As you come in from the roundabout on your right-hand side will be the local centre which is where the shops will be and the medical centre.
"On the left is the primary school and also, the housing that will be here, that we should start building in the next couple of months will include 170 affordable homes. This is very crucial.
"The other thing the spine road does is give access to the east for the first employment parcels, where the jobs lie. On finally on the other side of Sherwood Way there will be the community park and a new cemetery at the top of the hill and all the way back to the A60 will be a further perhaps 1,000 houses."
It is understood final planning permission will soon be granted and the purchasing builder will soon be announced. The next batch of houses are expected to be finished around the start of next year.
The 480-acre site will provide a new community and commercial space which could generate up to £100 million a year for the local economy. It is expected to generate up to 4,000 new jobs.
The road, yet to be named, will open progressively as occupiers are ready, over the course of a year or more. Speaking at the site on July 1 Ben Bradley, Conservative leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and Mansfield MP, added: "This is a really important step in the process of developing this site. The main link road we are opening today will then set us up to go away and put in infrastructure.
"We have got more and more people who want to come and live here and find the work-life balance and the beautiful countryside and everything that we have got going on around Mansfield and north Nottinghamshire.
"More widely we are going to attract residents and we have actually got an influx of people moving up from London and the south east to north Nottinghamshire at the minute which is unheard of. Those people come and live and spend money here, hopefully we can attract them to spend it in Mansfield town centre as well.
"It is still work in progress but this is a big milestone in terms of having that access now."
