By Don Mort, local democracy reporter
A former school site in Swinnow will be turned into council homes after planning approval was given.
Plans for 82 houses and flats at Hough Top drew multiple objections from people living nearby, including the impact on road safety, damage to trees and wildlife and the massing and appearance of the scheme.
Leeds City Council sought permission for the project at the former Hough Side High School site.
The scheme was approved by the council’s South and West plans panel at a meeting on Thursday (August 1).
The council cited a growing need for social housing in the Pudsey ward, where more than 350 bids were being made for each home advertised.
Coun Andy Parnham, Labour member for Armley, told the meeting: “I would love this in my ward because we are crying out. It’s number one in my inbox, housing.”
Councillors were told the use of red brick was among objections to the design of the homes.
Councillor Barry Anderson, Adel and Wharfedale Conservative, said: “Yes, getting this level of affordable house is great.
“However, I believe we should be making our affordable housing equal to or better than other housing.”
The application was before the panel after a decision to approve was deferred at a previous meeting.
Coun Kayleigh Brooks, Labour member for Little London and Woodhouse, said: “I’m actually quite disappointed this has dragged on so long. It’s so difficult to get these applications put together in the first place.”
The development includes 28 two-bedroom and 23 three-bed houses. Four four-bed houses will also be built, along with 17 one-bed and ten two-bed flats.
A majority of panel members voted to defer and delegate the application to the council’s chief planning officer for approval, subject to conditions.
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Excellent, let’s get these homes built so people can begin to enjoy their new life!
The new residents could also have enjoyed a far better “new life” without the significant traffic issues they will also suffer, which the council continually washed its hands of. What about the new residents in the 12 houses next to the ball strike fence? Their lovely new gardens will be in virtually permanent shade thanks to the 10m high Fastigiate trees the planners proposed as a solution – rather than re-laying out the development slightly, so this was not necessary.
And what about the 110 people who already live here – who objected to this solely because the design along one side could EASILY have been changed to be more in keeping with the existing area, and wasn’t?
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. They were told this since BEFORE the plans were drawn up. CHGT had multiple opportunities and invitations to discuss this with residents. They refused to even meet our 3 Councillors.
Poor consultation and riding roughshod over residents doesn’t help – we should expect more from our local council. A private developer would have made those changes. So why should we accept that our Council – using 22.4m of OUR money, which they still have to borrow – doesn’t have to?
This should have been a decent social housing development, planned well, which people would be proud to live in. Not one that will rapdily be seen as a mistake due to poor planning and architecture.
We shouldn’t just be throwing anything up to meet demand, this should have been done properly. Not decided for political correctness. The comment from Councillor Brooks (parchuted in as a sub for someone else at the last minute) quoted in the article is particularly irksome. It only “dragged on so long” because it still wasn’t right yet.
At both the 7th March and 6th June meetings, the Labour councillors had asked many sensible questions about the design, layout and environmental issues to try and improve this scheme – and because the Planning Department had “forgotten” to invite experts to the meeting to answer these questions, they voted to defer. At the 1st August meeting… with experts now present to ask… the Labour team pretty much forgot what they wanted to know and stayed quiet.
Shame on all those involved in the Planning Department, and particularly the Council Housing Growth Team.