New council homes could be built on 'plagued' former Kimberley brewery site estate

The former Hardys & Hansons brewery site has already been partially turned into a housing estate, where housebuilder Fairgrove started building on the nearly 200-year-old site in 2015.

However, residents living in some homes built as part of earlier phases have faced a number of problems over recent years.

Leaky roofs, unfinished roads, poor drainage and rats are part of the issues residents have had to deal with.

Some remedial works on site still remain.

After years of homeowner complaints and probes by Broxtowe Council over whether the developer had broken planning obligations, the site was taken over by the funder of the project in February after workers were sent home from site on January 29.

Now, the borough council is set to spend £18,000 on groundwork investigations for the un-worked ‘phase three’ of the site – which has existing planning consent for 75 homes – to assess ‘what problems are in the ground’ and the value it could be to the authority.

Depending on the results of the surveys, the council could look to purchase the site for it to be used for new social housing.

Speaking at the council’s cabinet meeting on March 10, a council officer said: “If the survey merits further work, then we can look at doing further work to look at valuation of the site – perhaps look at an architecture course or if we could put in another planning application to get a larger number of units on the site.

“But before we do that we need to know what problems are in the ground, what the estimated costs of doing these necessary works and what the value of the site would be to ourselves.”

Coun Greg Marshall (Brox All), council deputy leader, said: “There is no obligation for us as an authority to intervene here and take over but what we’re saying is we want to do the right thing and we want to help those people who have been so badly let down.

“This is not necessary a panacea – we have to assess what comes back from this survey work – but it’s certainly the first step in progressing a very unfavourable situation.”

Coun Peter Bales (Lab), questioned whether the groundworks money would cover the ‘snagging issues’ on the estate’s previous phases – at this stage it does not.

Coun Milan Radulovic (Brox All), council leader, said: “With the survey results coming back, the council, as well as making an offer to the receivers, can pressurise, in my opinion, the receivers to put aside a certain amount for fixing phase one and two – the outstanding snagging risk.

“That only becomes part of our moral responsibility should we be the successful bidders to phase three.”

Coun Radulovic added he expects the council to be ‘successful’ in a bid and said there were currently around 1,350 people on the authority’s housing waiting list with more than 300 people having a preference of Kimberley.

Coun Philip Owen (Con), asked: “Are you saying if Broxtowe Council successfully purchases the land to build out phase three, that all of that remedial work around existing homes will be completed?”

Coun Radulovic replied: “Essentially, yes.”

He continued: “The county council holds a bond, a section 278 bond on completion of the highways and street lighting.

"We don’t know what that bond is at the moment – these are part of the investigation.

“If that bond and the integrity of the bond is in place then there is no reason why when phase three’s finished the whole lot will be finished – no reason whatsoever.”

The previous developer, Fairgrove, was aiming to create high-quality properties inside the old kiln stores, tower and Grade II-listed maltings.

The Kimberley Brewery was originally opened in 1832 and acted as a major employer in the town with more than 200 employees.

It was sold off to Greene King in 2006 but abandoned five years later, when it was left to fall into disrepair.

The former brewery’s Victorian-era tower was supposed to be repaired and developed into three homes from 2021 onwards, but was sold in September to another developer after years of concern over its safety.