Plans to build 77 new homes in Liversedge have been greenlit despite 144 objections from local residents.
The plans – relating to a plot of land off Primrose Lane – received unanimous approval on Thursday, 5 November from Kirklees Council’s Strategic Planning Committee. The site is allocated for housing in the council’s Local Plan and is bordered by the Spen Valley Greenway to the north, along with fields belonging to local football club Hartshead AFC.
Now that the application has been approved, a mixture of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes that are mainly detached and semi-detached will be built by developer Jones Homes. Twelve of the two-bedroom units will be split across two apartment buildings. Vehicles will access the development via Darley Road.
The site contains five mineshafts, one of which requires further investigation to determine whether plots 6, 7 and plot 10’s garage can be built safely or will have to be axed from the development. However, this wasn’t seen as a reason why the application couldn’t be decided today.
Comments were read out at the meeting on behalf of ward councillor, Cllr David Hall (Con), who said he was mainly concerned with the Section 106 agreement. While he welcomed some aspects of the plans around parking restrictions, he feared that the introduction of double yellow lines along Darley Road would see some residents lose on-street parking outside their homes.
He said: “The report mentions that there will be some houses for affordable rent. I am opposed to this as we have sufficient houses for rent in the area and I would prefer these as low-cost starter homes for sale so that local families can get onto the housing ladder.”
While no members of the public were in attendance today, one resident wrote when commenting on the plans: “I still object to this application as this is already a heavily populated built up area with a high rate of traffic. Adding 77 additional dwellings will increase air pollution, massively increase demand on the already struggling social infrastructure and remove a large amount of green space that is already limited in this area.
“Children deserve a happy, healthy, safe area to grow up in, by allowing this development to go ahead you are removing this for the children of Darley Road and the surrounding areas.”
Jonathan Ainley from Savills – the applicant’s agent – spoke highly of the plans and added: “We recognise the development needs to be of a high-quality and right for the area. We concur with officers this has been achieved through collaboration with Jones Homes and the hard work and dedication of officers over a period of over 18 months following submission of the application.”
Councillor Andrew Pinnock (Lib Dem, Cleckheaton) said he generally supported the plans but wanted to know whether the water mains could be redirected to avoid the woodland and reduce the loss of trees. However, the councillor was told this had been explored but was not possible. Councillor Mohan Sokhal (Labour, Greenhead), felt the plans ‘met the needs of the wider community’ and had good Section 106 contributions.
