A developer that was allowed to build 1,000 new homes after promising an idyllic country park to go alongside it, has delivered a ‘useless bit of scrubland’ instead, neighbours claim.
Barratt Homes agreed to fashion a wooded wildlife area complete with an island on a lake before winning permission for their building bonanza in the little Nottinghamshire town of Bingham in 2018.
Seven years on, neighbours say they have been ‘mugged off’ with an empty heath now dotted by dead trees, paths that end nowhere, a lake half the size of that promised, and flooding on the rest of the site.
But the houses are selling quickly and existing residents are demanding an emergency meeting to ensure that the developer does not disappear before making good on its promises.
‘Residents at large think this is only half finished, a work in progress,’ one told the Nottingham Post. ‘They don’t realise this is it.
‘It’s basically a circle around a lake.’
It took Barratt to just two years to win planning permission for the development in the historic town of just 10,000 people near Newark.
The company said they would name the country park ‘Archer’s Lake’ in memory of local boy Jack Archer, 14, who died when he was knocked off his bicycle by a speeding driver in July 2016.
Independent councillor Ted Birch said Barratt Homes are ‘taking the mick’ out of local residents with their attempt to build a country park to offset a 1,000-home development
The builders laid out a vision of a wooded country park complete with boating lake and island
The reality, according to neighbours is a boggy swamp that regularly floods
Wooden bird hides were installed before the site was opened in 2020 but locals say they were rapidly filled with smashed up vodka bottles, cigarette buts and human faeces before being demolished as an eyesore.
Visitors described the lake as a disappointing cloudy pond with no sign of the promised island in the middle, while some of the trees that did manage to survive were inadvertently mowed down in a maintenance mishap.
‘The paths are absolutely shot,’ wrote Nick Parr on the Archer’s Lake Facebook page.
‘All the fine sand has risen to the top and now it’s like walking along a wet boggy beach.
‘The ground-levels to the west and north of the lake are ridiculously low and will never be anything other than a boggy mess.
‘Add to that the plastic black netting working its way out of the so-called stabilised banks and path that is nothing more than a wildlife killer and I think we’ve just about got the perfect definition of a balls up.’
The site has at least proved popular with dog-walkers but a lack of maintenance has left dog waste bins overflowing with uncollected faeces.
And the flooding is sometimes so bad that the lake risks losing its position as the largest body of water on the site.
The company said they would name the country park ‘Archer’s Lake’ in memory of local boy Jack Archer, 14, who died when he was knocked off his bicycle by a speeding driver in 2016
Nine years on building debris litters the site which has been branded ‘useless scrubland’
Flooding regularly cuts locals off from access to the site entrance
And some compared the development as little more than a ‘circle around a lake’
Poor maintenance has left bins, some filled with dog waste, overflowing on the site
‘The entrance bridge, as others have pointed out disappears underwater which was always going to be obvious when you replace a 15-ft deep ditch with a 5 ft deep ditch,’ Mr Parr added.
Local independent councillor Ted Birch has demanded an Extraordinary General Meeting of Rushcliffe Borough Council slamming a ‘failure to deliver on the commitments made during the planning stages’.
‘It’s a farce,’ he added. ‘The developers can do what they like and they’re taking the mick and we want to ensure this can’t happen again.
‘This should have been an asset for Bingham for decades to come.
‘My children should have enjoyed this and so should thousands of other children but when you look out at it, it’s just rubbish.’
But the council is not due to have its next meeting until May and anger is growing among the 320 members of the campaign group.
‘Just a quick thanks to the planners, councillors and house builders who by agreement have given us the useless bit of scrubland,’ wrote Richard Brown.
A spokesperson for Rushcliffe Borough Council said: ‘We continue to work with Barratt Homes to ensure the development at Bingham, which includes Archer’s Lake, is developed in accordance with the planning permission.
‘If any enforcement issues are raised, the council would investigate this in accordance with its enforcement policy.’
Barratt Homes said it was still in negotiation with the council over the long-term future of the site.
‘We are continuing to work with Rushcliffe Borough Council and Bingham Town Council to finalise the works at Archer’s Lake,’ a spokesman added.
Locals are baffled by some paths which stop inexplicably; this one at the edge of a ditch
But houses are selling fast on the nearby estate where family homes cost up to £499,000
‘Upon completion, the lake and surrounding public open spaces will be transferred to a residential management company for ongoing maintenance.’
‘How the hell do we hold the developers accountable for this?’ demanded Mr Parr.
‘The second the last home is put up they will pack up and be gone and this will never ever be sorted and they will be away with what must be tens of millions of pounds in profit on this development alone.
‘Our entire town has been absolutely mugged off with this mess.’
