A Green councillor has labelled proposals for a sprawling development of over a thousand houses in greenbelt as being “everything wrong with the planning system.”
This is in response to a planning application from Hallam Land to build on a 124 acres green belt site off Westgate Hill Street, in the Tong and Fulneck Valley.
Speaking on behalf of the three councillors for the area, Councillor Matt Edwards (Tong) has said, “Tong Ward’s Green Party councillors are absolutely opposed to these proposals which will have a significant negative impact on the local community and on the local environment.
“The Tong and Fulneck Valley is one of the last areas of green space between Leeds and Bradford and these proposals will see vast areas of this green space lost forever. An overwhelming majority of respondents to the developers survey last year were opposed to these proposals and Bradford Council should take note of that.
“A thousand homes and the traffic that comes with that is going to have a massive impact on the A650 Tong Street which is already at breaking point. The developer is going to claim that not everyone will drive but the proposals show this will be a car-centric development and there is nothing to show that there are going to be better public transport links here.
Councillor Edwards, who is the leader of the Green Group of Councillors on Bradford Council, also pointed out that Bradford’s Local Plan was heavily delayed and still in draft form so it wasn’t a done deal that this area would be allocated for housing.
“I am the first to say there is a shortage of housing across Bradford but a thousand houses in green belt is not the solution. Since being elected I have been doing what I can to try and block the inclusion of the Tong and Fulneck Valley as a site for housing.
“There are other sites across Bradford District in much more sustainable locations, but Labour seem determined to sell the communities in BD4 down the river to help line the pockets of property developers.”
“Bradford desperately needs more affordable housing in places with good public transport links and close to services. There are vast areas of the City Centre and places like Holmewood that need regeneration and the Local Plan should be setting out that ambition.
“The fact this is even on the table really does go to show everything that is wrong with the planning system. It is the wrong types of houses in absolutely the wrong place.”
Councillor Celia Hickson (Tong) pointed out how the impact on national planning reforms being proposed by the new Labour government would make it more difficult for local people to have a say on developments like this.
She said, “Local people already don’t have as much say in the planning process – especially when it comes to schemes like this. People feel vast developments like this are being forced on them by property developers whose primary focus is their profits.
“But, instead of trying to fix this, the new Labour government – who we know received massive donations from house builders in the run up to the general election – has decided to make sweeping changes to the planning system that will rip up environmental protections and give local people even less say then they do now.
“As things stand, the housing developers aren’t interested in building the right houses in the right place. They make more money from executive homes built on our countryside so that’s what they build. Our Labour-run Council is letting them get away with it.”