Nineteen new homes will be built on Liversedge fields despite fears over the “devastating” impact on neighbours.
Kirklees Council has recently approved plans from John Brooke Builders Ltd to develop a plot of land at Lands Beck Way in Hightown. The site is allocated for residential development in the council’s Local Plan, and is bordered by properties on three sides and open land to the south.
The Local Plan says the site has the capacity for up to 27 homes, but the applicant says this is not the case due to the site’s constraints which include the presence of a sewer and the gradient of the land. Of the 19 houses, 13 will be two-storey three, four and five-bed detached houses, three are two-bed bungalows, and three are two-storey three-bed townhouses. The town houses will be classed as affordable.
In a supporting document on behalf of the applicant, it says that the development “has been designed so that it would not significantly alter (and adversely affect) the character of the area”. But members of the public have been left concerned by the potential impacts, with 21 representations made in total, and all but one being in objection.
One person wrote: “I would like to object to this application on the basis that it was previously rejected due to other brown field sites being available. This is still the case, lots of brown fields sites are still available for development in Cleckheaton and surrounding areas, before we build on this lovely green field site.
“I do understand that we are now under more pressures to build homes, but I don’t understand why this changes the fact of there being other brown field sites available to build on.”
Another said: “For 29 years on this quiet road which has six houses the new revised layout will have a devastating impact on our lives and our outlook as the road into the proposed new estate is directly opposite our house which will create more noise pollution at all hours of the day and night, with car headlights shining in our windows especially in the Wintertime.
“Has this been taken into account or is [it] just another profit making scheme and not considering the environment and welfare of the people that live here? There will be more pollution, noise and another 40 plus cars to add for the amount of houses that’s being built.”
