Council backs down over new homes plan next to historic packhorse route

PLANNERS HAVE been forced into a U-turn over proposals to put new homes on Green-Belt fields alongside an ancient Yorkshire packhorse route following an intervention from Historic England.

Barnsley Council had planned for new homes to be built on fields in the village of Oxspring to help meet a need for new housing, but it has now had a rethink after Historic England warned the development would cause “considerable harm” to historic assets, including a Grade II-listed bridge formerly used by packhorses to cross the River Don when travelling between Cheshire and Yorkshire.

The council announced the change days before the proposal was due to be scrutinised by a Government planning inspector at examination hearings.

Former councillor and Oxspring resident John Wade, 92, welcomed the decision, saying: “I thought Barnsley Council had lost leave of their senses.”

The inspector must be satisfied the council’s proposals, which include a range of proposed developments across the borough into the 2030s, are “sound” before they can be formally adopted.

Consultations were held over more than a dozen new sites earlier this year, with several generating opposition from residents, including the plans for Oxspring. The situation is complicated further because a developer wants an alternative site on the edge of the village to be given over for housing. The land has already been dismissed by planners.