Gazette News
Menston planning verdict due by end of month
4:00pm Thursday 16th February 2012
Two planning applications for nearly 300 homes in a Wharfedale village could finally be decided at the end of this month.
Bradford Council has confirmed a planning panel will meet in Menston on Tuesday, February 28, to discuss the schemes for Bingley Road and Derry Hill in the village.
And developers and campaigners could be forgiven for hoping it will be third time lucky for the Shipley Area Planning Panel, after one meeting was postponed last July and another was adjourned minutes after starting in September.
They will try to meet again at the Kirklands Community Centre, Main Street, Menston at 9.45am in just under a fortnight.
The news comes as opponents to the Bingley Road plan, where developers Taylor Wimpey want to build up to 135 homes, have submitted a 24-page report outlining their objections to the proposals.
Menston Action Group, (MAG) which has been Bingley Road scheme and a plan by Barratt Homes to build 175 house on Derry Hill, have sent the report to Bradford Council ahead of the panel meeting later this month.
They say it would be wrong for the council to approval Taylor Wimpey’s proposals in the face of strong local opposition and the application should be decided at a local level.
“The fact that the proposed developments on Bingley Road and Derry Hill are opposed by so many people many of whom wrote letters, clearly illustrates that the development is not in accordance with the wishes of the local community,” the report says.
It also highlights several areas why MAG believe the Bingley Road plan should be turned down, including road congestion, flooding and drainage issues and the impact on the railways, schools, doctor and dentist surgeries and other infrastructure.
Taylor Wimpey re-submitted its plans for Bingley Road in December – a year after it originally submitted an application – in a bid to force the Council to make a decision on the saga And at the same time, it appealed to the Government's planning inspectorate about the council's “non-determination” of their first application, made on December 21, 2010.
The appeal could lead to a public inquiry within the next few months led by a Government-appointed inspector.
Barratt Homes first applied to build homes on Derry Hill in September 2010.