A Green councillor has raised concerns after another planning application has been submitted to build houses on green space in Bierley.
This is the fourth planning proposal for new houses on green space in Bierley in four years and would see 59 houses built on a field of the former Lockwood Farm. It also comes on the back of proposals to build 1000 homes on nearby Westgate Hill.
Councillor Celia Hickson said, “In the Local Plan, Labour allocated large areas of green space in Bierley for housing and that’s why we are seeing all these applications now. Nearly 300 houses in Bierley alone (1) have been approved in four years despite opposition from local people and local Green Party councillors.
“The roads, particularly Spen View Lane, Boy Lane and Shetcliffe Lane are all just too narrow for any more traffic and there has been no investment to improve the main junctions with Tong Street or Rooley Lane. It should be obvious that you can’t just keep building more and more houses without investing in roads, public transport or local services like doctors and dentists and schools.
Councillor Hickson also highlighted that proposed planning reforms at a national level will further silence local voices and impose huge house building targets that ignore real local need,
“The influx of new housing developments in Bierley highlight just what is wrong with our planning system. The planning rules, as they are now, already give the big house builders an advantage. It allows them to build houses on greenfield sites and ignore all the empty brown field sites we have in our district – damaging the local environment and putting pressure on local services and roads.
“Green councillors in Tong Ward know that we desperately need more housing in the area but what is being proposed is not doing anything to tackle the shortage of affordable, social housing. A balance needs to be struck between the genuine need for new homes and caring for our countryside. But what Angela Rayner and Labour have done is to shift the balance even further in favour of the developers, allowing them to put their profit before our communities’ needs and our environment.
Notes:
1 | 82 houses were approved on land off Spen View Lane And Shetcliffe Lane (20/02933/MAF), 106 houses were approved on Playing Fields St Johns CE Primary School Dawson Lane (21/05853/MAR), 90 houses were approved on land off Bierley Lane (22/02556/MAF), 18 houses were approved on land off Kaycell Street (22/02462/MAO)