There are 3 main areas that Darley Dale Town Council will focus on in their formal reply to the Local Plan review;
Settlement hierarchy
As this affects the quota of houses for the next 15 years or so. Infrastructure capacity emphasising that the drainage system is already at capacity. Green space protection by expanding the green space covered by Policy PD10.
The Settlement Hierarchy’s ranking of Darley Dale as Tier 2 will be fully reviewed and a case put forward that suggests Darley Dale was treated differently in the settlement hierarchy review carried out in September 2025 to all other settlements in the Derbyshire Dales, and questions the maintaining of its tier 2 ranking.
The New Housing Survey carried out in March 2026 gathered data towards the Town Council’s Local Plan review reply on two of the settlement hierarchy elements, employment growth and self-containment. The Town Council will address and question most, if not all the elements on which it was originally assessed.
Infrastructure Capacity
This is a big problem and the most significant is that the combined sewer serving the main developed areas of Darley Dale, particularly along the A6 corridor, is overflowing untreated sewage into the River Derwent at unacceptably high levels and frequency. It seems to have become part of the everyday drainage system rather than being an emergency device that only activates during unusually high rainfall events.
Residents are actively talking about seeing road pooling in areas never seen before and are being seen regularly now during extended periods of lighter rain rather than in the ‘usual’ places during shorter bursts of heavy rain.
The Flooding in Darley Dale Survey in March 2026 and the Flooding Open Day at The Whitworth gathered evidence on changes to flooding patterns in Darley Dale over the last 3 years, and to identify possible causes. The infrastructure reply will include environmental issues facing Darley Dale, not least of which is the untreated sewage being released into the River Derwent.
Green Space Protection
This is an issue that all reviews of the Darley Dale parish conclude as necessary, to protect the natural beauty and landscape character. There is a genuine fear the over-development will not only spoil this character, but make Darley Dale a suburb of Matlock. The District Council recognised this and raised Policy PD10 to protect both the landscape character and prevent coalescence in the current adopted plan. It did not however, include the green space on the Hackney hillside that separates Matlock from Upper Hackney in the area protected by Policy PD10. The Town Council will address this oversight in its formal reply to the Local Plan Review.