The demolition of a former high school building in West Leeds has been given the green light by Leeds City Council planners.
Hough Side High School closed in August 1992 and Leeds City Council has earmarked the site for around 76 houses in its Site Allocations planning blueprint for Outer West Leeds.
A report by a council planning officer concluded:
“It is considered that the proposal represents an appropriate means of demolition and will not be unduly harmful to surrounding amenity or be environmentally harmful.”
The building will be initially soft stripped, with re-usable items and timber materials removed. It will then be systematically demolished by mechanical plant. The site is to be cleared of all demolition materials, consolidated and then finished in top soil and seeded.
The building has had a variety of uses, and WLD reported in November 2019 that most council workers had moved out of the building, also known as Hough Top Court, and work to demolish the building was ‘able to take place soon’.
Demolition had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. A council spokesperson said last year that preliminary demolition surveys at Hough Side School had begun on site.
The planning application to demolish the building and the decision to approve can be viewed here.
A planning application for houses on the Hough Top site is yet to be submitted.
An exact date for demolition work is yet to be set.