Flagg residents say new business centre will bring ‘tonnes’ of traffic to the tiny village

People living in the hamlet with a population of about 300 - mostly farmers - say new businesses at the site will bring more lorries and cars into a road system which could not cope with them.

A spokesman for residents - who did not want to be named - told how details of the new venture had appeared on a Facebook page created by Derbyshire Business Centre.

It is understood the site will provide storage for various customers including fairground equipment, vintage cars, animal feed and caravans and a joinery business.

However the spokesman told how villagers were concerned that no plans had yet been submitted to the council requesting a change of use for the location.

Up until December the site had been the dairy-producing Dale Head Farm - however its owner had decided to give up farming in favour of a more profitable project.

The spokesperson said: “This is a massive change of use and will involve lorries coming and going.

“It’s a very quiet village but if people are storing things there and working there all the vehicles are going to be going down a single track and back lanes.

“This is not really a city environment where industry takes place - it just feels a bit like they’re ploughing ahead with all this.”

However Tommie Cooper, 21, a spokesman for Rob Lomas who owns Dale Head Farm, described the villagers’ traffic concerns as ‘laughable’.

He said: “There will probably be about three to four cars in and out a day.

“When this was a working farm we had milk lorries in and out all the time on the back roads.

“All of the houses in Flagg are farms and they all have huge lorries going to and from their farms.

“If they’re now saying the roads are not suitable for lorries that’s absolute rubbish.

“When this was a working farm we had six trailers coming and going every day - but now someone wants to do a bit of joinery that’s out of the question.”

Tommie confirmed an application for change of use had not yet been made to Derbyshire Dales District Council but one was imminent.

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