We have written previously about the outline planning applications submitted by developers for greenfield sites in Cookridge, at Moseley Wood Bottoms, and Adel, on land opposite the church. Now we learn that Miller Homes have submitted an application for up to 380 houses in Bramhope on the land between the main road (A660) and Breary Lane East. This site includes the green belt land.
Over the summer Leeds City Council carried out city-wide consultation with Leeds residents on the Site Allocations Plan to identify land for retail housing, employment and greenspace across Leeds. Publication of the results of the draft consultation is due next year and will be submitted to the Secretary of State in late 2014 with the plan being adopted in late 2015.
Unfortunately this Tory led coalition government removed the requirement to build first on brownfield sites and turned the planning process into a free for all. Greenfield sites are easier to build on and therefore cheaper for the developer to exploit and so more profitable. Developers appear to be taking advantage of the change in the planning rules to submit planning applications for more profitable greenfield sites. Should the developers succeed in their outline planning applications, the site allocations exercise will be irrelevant and Leeds City Council will have no powers to overturn the decision. Planning consent for any of the sites would be final and override the allocations reached through public consultation. These applications appear to be a pre-emptive move by the developers to grab the opportunity to gain consent to develop greenfield sites ahead of any democratic planning process.
Adel & Wharfedale Labour Party has a clear policy on local development – at its heart is a priority for building on brownfield sites, that is sites that have already been developed – and would object to this application from Miller Homes.
Bramhope Parish Council opposes development on the site and has circulated a letter to Bramhope residents which is available on their website: http://bramhopecarlton.org.uk/the-parish-council/
This opposition is on a number of grounds including:
• The access and highways issues on the already overcrowded A660, to be made worse by the Centurion Fields estate and the new housing to be built on the Boddington Hall and the ex Department of Works and Pensions offices in Adel (both brownfield sites);
• The impact on Bramhope of a 25% increase in the size of the village through this development;
• The site is classed as a Protected Area of Search (PAS) land in the Council Site Allocations Plan and would not be considered for development in the short term; and
• Environmental issues, loss of open space and the impact on the rural character of the village.
All Leeds residents are entitled to comment on planning applications and objections must be in before Tuesday Dec 3rd.
For more details and to register objections to the Bramhope development go to: https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple&searchType=Application
and enter the planning application number 13/05134/OT into the search box.
Adel and Wharfedale Branch 