Shipley’s Green Party councillors call for Bradford Council to use the ‘Blight Site Fund’ to take control of the derelict Hirst Wood Garden Centre in Saltaire following the refusal of the latest planning application for three houses.
Shipley Ward Green Party councillors have welcomed this week’s planning decision to refuse consent for new housing on the former Hirst Wood garden nursery site.
Hartley Investment Group, the owner of the land, had applied for a second time to build three homes on the derelict site by Hirst Lock. This latest application was rejected on 7th July.
Councillor Kevin Warnes (Shipley Ward) says:
“Hartley have failed spectacularly to engage with Hirst Wood’s residents, community groups and councillors for over a decade and allowed a much-loved local area to fall into rack and ruin.
“The Green councillors have called before for the Council to step in to sort this out. We should now use our new ‘Blight Site Fund’ to purchase the land and develop it in a way that directly benefits local families, schools and visitors to this beautiful part of the district.
“This is a prominent site tucked away between the river Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. It is simply not suited to the kind of housing over-development that Hartley have repeatedly pushed for. ”
Councillor Warnes and fellow ward councillor Martin Love will now take this matter up, once again, with Bradford Council’s Executive members and planning officers in order to find a solution that benefits the local community.
