PROJECT REPORT 29


playing fields to the north and the nature reserve, and extends the line of existing detached homes along the south side of Long Lane towards Beeston. It remedies one of this very attractive area’s major drawbacks, namely the now-demolished Cemex cement works.


here are many benefits for buyers such


as families, including trains running direct from Attenborough to London in under two hours. The linear site is however hemmed in by the railway line, one of the key constraints that Cameron Homes had to wrestle with. It is also in the historic part of the village, with a nearby conservation area containing with two listed dwellings plus a listed church.


THE BUSINESS CASE


Cameron Homes acquired the site in 2020, it was a “speculative opportunity that came to the open market,” operations director Paul Morrissey tells Housebuilder & Developer. The opportunity came at the right time, as the business was looking to expand further into Nottingham and the East Midlands; traditionally it had built the majority of its homes in the Derby and Michelover regions.


There was also an extremely strong environmental case behind the project for Cameron Homes, in disposing of a major cement works which was an anomaly in an area greatly benefitting from nature. “Environmentally, it wasn’t the greatest


thing to have a cement factory in the middle of a residential area and next to a nature reserve,” says Paul. The cement plant was a source of anger among local residents for many years due to the air pollution produced, which meant that the developer faced a smooth route to planning for an infill development of a small number of high quality homes that would mean no more cement production.


Cemex used to quarry the gravel and convey it over the railway tracks, but it was a derelict site once Cameron Homes acquired it with what Morrissey says was a “competitive” bid.


The site had some contamination, and Cemex were “keen to see it cleaned up,” says Morrissey, which added further momentum to its being sold to a developer who would remedy the site environmentally. The old batching plant, mixers and conveyors had to be demolished and removed, and the whole place was “covered in concrete,” he says. Some of the structures were fairly tall due to the nature of the process, so were “something of an eyesore locally,” he adds.


However commercially, the developer recognised there was a real need for family homes in this area, which led them to “push hard for this site, and bring our offer into the area.” Morrissey asserts that there wasn’t much competition for this


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THE ATTENBOROUGH NATURE RESERVE SURROUNDS THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE VILLAGE, A 226 HECTARE ATTRACTION


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