Residents can enjoy virtual bird’s eye view of possible developments in village near Worksop

Bolsover Council has already held two public consultations to gather the views of villagers about how best to develop Creswell with ideas including homes, jobs, investment, services and facilities.

And tomorrow, Thursday, July 27, Creswell Heritage and Wellbeing Centre, on Colliery Road, will host a consultation feedback event with a Virtual Reality Balloon Ride showing what growth in Creswell might look like, based on the public’s feedback so far.

Coun Duncan McGregor, council deputy leader and member for Elmton with Creswell, previously said “Planning for the future of our communities is at the heart of what we do at the council. The opportunity to use technology to involve our communities in those decisions is a new and exciting way to achieve this.

“New homes and jobs come hand in hand with bringing investment and new services and facilities to our communities.”

The Creswell Virtual Reality Balloon Ride will comprise a 10-minute virtual reality experience of flying in a hot air balloon over Creswell, so participants can appreciate the existing, planned, and potential future housing, workspaces and infrastructure developments from a new perspective.

The council has already used a new masterplanning feature via The Future Fox’s PlaceBuilder platform to encourage people living and working in Creswell to contribute on how they think growth proposals could be shaped.

A council spokesman said traditionally public comments are sought after decisions by developers, architects, planners and economists, but the authority has been determined to pull in public views as soon as possible.

After the event, participants will be asked to provide feedback on whether this style of event and the use of virtual reality was helpful towards understanding what was discussed and how this information might shape the future growth of Creswell.

Officers will also be at the event to answer any questions. Following the event and the feedback received, work will start on preparing a draft Creswell Growth Plan for further public consultation.