By John Baron
Angry Swinnow residents have lodged a formal complaint to Leeds City Council over a ‘refusal to engage properly’ over plans for 82 new local authority houses.
Residents have criticised the local authority’s Council Housing Growth Team for what they claim is a lack of meaningful consultation during the planning process, which has seen the principle of the development supported locally but concerns over its design and layout.
The plans are due to come back before councillors for a decision next week, with council planning officers recommending approval, subject to conditions.
Resident Ian Feber said: “Our new government has been in the press all this week with announcements about taking a proactive “How, not If” stance on planning objections when reforming the laws to facilitate easier planning permissions.
“Yet here is a pure example of how any new planning laws around “How, not if” must include a requirement to compromise on both sides (with a real commitment to meaningful consultation) if they are to avoid residents feeling that pPlanning is being done to them‘.
“Here the principle is absolutely not in dispute – Hough Top residents have been totally supportive of new affordable housing – yet the current proposal has garnered over 100 objections (from a street with only 51 houses) because of significant issues with the quality of the planned layout and design, plus the Council’s stubborn refusal to change it.”
Mr Feber said the council lost a Judicial Review in 2022 over the TV Harrison Ground application in Wortley, in which they were strongly criticised for their lack of consultation and refusal to listen to the local community.
He added: “Hough Top is going the same way – a further waste of public money due to the current inflexibility and bias of the planning process.”
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council’s Housing Growth Team, which is the applicant, said: “Extensive consultation has been undertaken on the proposed affordable housing development at Hough Top, Pudsey, with local people able to consider and comment on the draft proposals.
“This included direct mail to over 220 households in addition to publishing online consultation material. Face-to-face appointments were also offered to 29 households on Hough Top Road given their properties immediately adjoin the site.
“One recent complaint has been received and we will be responding to all of the concerns raised.”
The planning application could be decided by councillors on the South and West Plans Panel at Leeds Civic Hall next Thursday (1.30pm).
Council planning officers are recommending councillors approve the scheme, subject to 34 planning conditions including a landscaping scheme and details of maintenance, a highways condition survey and retention of driveways for parking.
No design alterations have been made since the last panel meeting, with the applicant concluding that the design and layout is appropriate.
A planning officer’s report said there was a growing demand for one, two and three bedroom social housing properties in the Pudsey ward.
The report concludes: “In light of the above, and particularly given that the site is an allocated housing site in the SAP, the principle of residential development is considered to be acceptable.
“The development is not considered to be harmful to the character and appearance of the area, nor would it have a harmful impact on highway safety. The development provides 100% affordable housing and this weighs heavily in the planning balance of considerations.”
The agenda and council documents can be read in full here.
People need houses to live in. Such nimby attitudes is not going to help.
This is the opposite of NIMBY! Residents say YES to the development of housing. Just not this totally unsuitable design and layout that is being forced on Pudsey because the council cannot afford to build it properly.
The Council Housing Growth Team are proposing a massive block of 27 flats, 13.5m high, positioned closest to the existing houses, where it towers 5.5m over their rooves. They are changing the road layout so all of the traffic is forced onto Hough Top with its well known school parking and football parking issues. Despite all the houses on Hough Top being in Yorkshire Stone, they are using red brick everywhere. The way they have laid it out also requires the removal of around 40% of the trees.
If they had put the flats in the centre of the site, introduced some stone to the design, and retained the existing roads in and out – they would have had no objections. And they have been told this since BEFORE the plans were drawn up.
A private developer would have done these things. So why should we accept that our Council – using OUR money – doesn’t have to?
No, you’ve missed the point Stephen. I live in a council house in Swinnow and agree completely that we need more social housing (I know people who are stuck on the waiting lists to get housing and know first hand the problems people face to get into housing). I support the principle of 80+ homes on that site.
People round here support the proposal for housing on that site and want to see it developed, but they just want the plans to be the best for the area, which they currently aren’t. The flats overshadow existing properties and could easily be moved to a different part of the site. The materials proposed could be better – the whole thing looks like a rush job done on the cheap. Poor consultation and riding roughshod over residents doesn’t help – we should expect more from our local council.
Let’s get a decent social housing development on there that’s planned well and that people will be proud to live in, not one that’ll soon become a dated eyesore due to poor planning and architecture. We shouldn’t just be throwing anything up to meet demand, let’s do it properly.