Services plea on the agenda

Residents of Fernwood are to meet the village’s developers in an attempt to resolve problems over the lack of a school and bus service.

Fernwood Parish Council was told on Tuesday that a meeting would be held with David Wilson Homes on November 21.

Representatives from Newark and Sherwood District and Nottinghamshire County councils will also be there.

The main items on the agenda will be the school that Fernwood residents are desperate to see built, and the lack of a bus service for the area.

In the meantime, the MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, will be called in to try to resolve the problems.

Councillors on Tuesday expressed frustration with David Wilson Homes over what they saw as a lack of co-operation over the two issues.

Mr Mike Mutter said the main stumbling block over the building of a school was the availability of land near the proposed site, where an access road must to be laid.

He said they had hoped to receive a report from David Wilson Homes last month saying the issue had been resolved.

But the county councillor for the area, Mrs Sue Saddington, said officers dealing with the Fernwood school issue had heard nothing from the company.

“I am annoyed at how Fernwood is being treated,” she said.

Mr Mutter said it was another example of how David Wilson Homes was not communicating.

He was still confident, however, that Fernwood would get its school.

Mr Mutter said the developers, who have agreed to pay a third of the cost of the school, wanted it built as it would help sell more houses.

Councillors are also frustrated at a lack of progress over the bus service situation in the village.

It is still, effectively, a building site, and David Wilson Homes is not allowing a bus service around the estate’s unadopted roads.

Instead, The Fernwood Flyer, run by Marshalls of Sutton-on-Trent, has to stop at the shelter on Great North Road, between the two entrances to Fernwood.

The parish council is worried that if Marshalls is not allowed back on to the estate it will withdraw the service.

Mr Mutter said: “If John Marshall (the managing director) withdraws the service we will never get it back.”