There are several ways that residents can help the Town Council in its formal reply to the Local Plan Review 2026.
Get Involved
The most important way that residents can help is to understand the importance of the potential impact on Darley Dale for years to come from this Local Plan review, and get involved.
Surveys
When the Town Council sends out surveys, the weight that the conclusions from analysis of the replies received carry very much depend on the number of responses.
If we look at Darley Dale and consider surveys released by the Town Council, the ‘New Homes Survey’ in March 26 was delivered to around 250 homes and less than 50 responses were received. This gives around a 20% reply rate. The ‘Flooding in Darley Dale Survey’ also in March 26, was delivered to over 2750 homes in Darley Dale, Two Dales and Hackney, with less than a 1% reply rate.
One of the barricades to higher reply numbers is the need for the respondent to be identifiable, proven by the number of residents that opened the survey and closed it without reply when asked to ID themselves. If a respondent isn’t identifiable their views cannot be counted towards any analysis, if the survey results are to be used in formal scenarios, such as the Local Plan review. The Town Council would like to confirm that the personal information provided would only be used to verify that particular survey’s statistics and would not be used or passed on or sold to any other 3rd party.
Thank you to all residents that did complete the survey(s), your help is much needed and appreciated.
Open Days
When the Town Council feels that it is the public interest to provide more information to residents and have the opportunity to discuss face to face with residents, it holds Open Day events at The Whitworth, the community hub of Darley Dale. This gives the Town Council the opportunity to create informative displays and provide more detailed information in booklet form, or create other ways that residents can interact. Where possible, County or District Councillors, or elected members will be invited to attend to take away feedback and give residents’ views a wider audience.
Two Open Days are currently planned, a ‘Flooding in Darley Dale’ open day in early April 26 and a ‘Local Plan’ pen day in June 26.
Report Flood Events
- If road or pavement surface water flooding/ pooling isn’t reported to the County Council; There will be no record of it happening and an opportunity to look for patterns of flooding is lost. For example: it may relate to new building development groundworks.
- No action will be taken by the County Council to investigate and resolve unless they receive multiple reports of the same incident.
The Town Council need this support from the community by recording flood incidents to help it and argue its case that Darley Dale’s infrastructure can’t cope with further new housing developments.
How to report road flooding
Derbyshire County Council are responsible for road flooding. Go online to www.derbyshire.gov.uk and type ‘flooding’ into the search box (this box says ‘I’m looking for’ when the page opens) on the top right (circled in red below). Like this:
Then, click ‘Reporting Flooding’ (oval red highlighted above)
A new page opens with a purple link box ‘Report Flooding’. Click this link.
You then follow the steps, starting by registering with the County Council or logging in if you’ve already registered previously. You don’t have to register to be able to log a report.
If you have any difficulties in following the steps, call Darley Dale Town Council on 01629 735248 who will assist you with completing the process.
If you would prefer to simply telephone your report to the County Council, call 01629 533190 and say that you would like to report a flood incident.