NEW HOMES CONUNDRUM
IT’S NOT difficult to see why people want to live in Burley-in-Wharfedale.
Nestled midway between Ilkley and Otley the village, and mentioned in the Domesday Book, it is characterised by weathered stone houses and bustling independent shops that give it a thriving community feel.
It is close to some of Yorkshire’s most breathtaking countryside, and throw in the fact it’s within comfortable commuting distance of Leeds and Bradford and you appreciate why it’s such a sought-after place to live.
However, the West Yorkshire village is just the latest place to find itself in the spotlight amid growing concern over how the country is going to address the chronic shortage of new homes.
Earlier this month, a controversial decision on plans from developer CEG to build 500 new homes and a school in Burley-in-Wharfedale was deferred amid concerns about the provision of a primary school.
The outline for the development on green belt land, off Sun Lane and Ilkley Road, had been recommended for approval under “exceptional circumstances” by Bradford Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee, but the developer must now come back with further details regarding the planned school.
The fact the development is on hold has been welcomed by many local residents who are opposed to the scheme, though it may only be a stay of execution.
What’s happening in Burley-inWharfedale is being replicated across the country with many people feeling they are fighting to prevent their communities being swamped by new developments.
In North West Leeds and Green Hammerton, just outside Harrogate, there has been strong opposition to planning applications and, with the Housing Secretary Sajid Javid having recently set out ambitious plans for more than 300,000 new homes to be built each year by the mid-2020s, the pressure on local communities is only going to intensify.
Bob Felstead is managing director of a digital marketing solutions firm and lives in Burley. He’s against the proposed housing scheme and says if it went ahead it would dramatically increase the local population from 6,000 to around 7,500. “This would be a 25 per cent increase in the population which is a big add-on that would impact on schools, the railway station and car parking,” he says.
“The council has a need for affordable housing throughout the district, but the average house sale price in Burley in the last 12 months is about £300,000. How do you start on the housing ladder at that price?”
Jeff McQuillan is a resident in the village and a former senior planning officer with Bradford Council. He says he isn’t against housing developments, however he is concerned at the impact such a large development could have. “It’s the scale of it and the lack of adequate infrastructure on the site that’s the problem.
“If you keep on eating away at the green belt you’ll end up creating a big urban sausage going up the valley which would be deeply unattractive.”
Jan Edwards has run the Wharfedale Deli in the centre of the village with her husband for the last 13 years. She moved here in 2000 and says it’s a close-knit place.
“It’s a great community where people muck in and get involved. There’s a really good street market, it’s a beautiful little village,” she says.
Jan is among those opposed to the scheme. “I appreciate the need for affordable housing in the area, particularly for first time buyers, but I think 500 is too many.”
She says buildings like the Malt Shovel, a former coaching inn, have already been converted into houses and like many residents she is worried about the impact a large scale development would have. “My concern is the infrastructure so for me it’s schools and medical services – would they be able to cope?
“I understand why the developers want to build here because they get a bigger return but I think it’s too much for a village of this size.”
Jan disagrees that local opposition is another case of nimbyism, or ‘not in my back yard’. “The general consensus is that’s it’s too much for a place like this and I don’t think it is the ‘not in my back yard’ mentality. You already have to wait two weeks for a doctor’s appointment. What would happen if you started adding 500 houses?”
One of the attractions of Burley-inWharfedale to developers is its road and rail links. However, if you speak to people in the village they talk about a transport network that is struggling to cope.
Jackie Whiteley has lived in the village for the past 30 years and has been a Wharfedale councillor on Bradford Council since 2012.
“Traffic is slow and my postbag is full of complaints about people parking outside their houses,” she says. “At peak times on the A65 there’s always congestion and 500 new homes aren’t going to make this any easier.”
Train services would be affected, too. “It’s not just the Wharfedale line that would need to be improved, the whole network would need more carriages.”
Coun Whiteley (Cons) says big housing projects shouldn’t be built in isolation. “People who would move in wouldn’t just have primary age children, they’ll also have secondary school age children, and no one is planning for all this,” she says. “The trouble with planning is it only looks at a single application and doesn’t look at the bigger picture.”
There is no easy answer to this conundrum and the inescapable reality is more homes are needed if we are to address the chronic housing shortage in this country – a legacy of previous administrations failing to properly get to grips with the issue.
The trouble is houses quite often aren’t needed where most people would prefer to live and where developers want to build, and the difficulty comes in trying to reconcile this without damaging the character of places like Burley-in-Wharfedale.
Coun Whiteley accepts the need for more housing but just questions where it’s being built. “Nobody likes change but people realise that Bradford needs houses.
“There’s such a big need for houses for younger people in the centre of Bradford but developers don’t want to build there, they want to build in the areas that will give them the biggest return.”
She believes that 500 new homes would fundamentally change Burley-inWharfedale.
“They would boost the council tax for Bradford and it would be good news for the cafes and pubs, but it’s a small place where visitors come to go walking in the countryside.
“People don’t want the green belt built on. It’s a beautiful area and is it really necessary to build these new houses here? They may get built but it will be at a cost to the people who live in Burley-in-Wharfedale.”