Site left vacant by floods could be redeveloped
A FORMER industrial site in Leeds which was vacated after the Boxing Day floods carnage in 2015 could be redeveloped into homes.
A developer wants to create a “new major residential scheme” at the former ThyssenKrupp site at the corner of Kirkstall Road and Viaduct Road – land which it has already bought.
Prospect Estates is due to deliver its “pre-application” information about the plan to Leeds City Council members on Thursday at the City Plans Panel meeting.
Jobs were axed when Germanowned Thyssen Krupp Woodhead Leeds vacated the 1.73-hectare site, near the Chinese Christian Church, in April 2016 following the floods – a move which the Unite union described at the time as a “very poor and flimsy excuse”, adding that it was a “solid profitable company”.
The empty building’s parameters are visible to the many motorists who pass it on the busy Kirkstall Road – a key site of the floods which cost the city an estimated £36.8m.
A report drafted for councillors sitting on this week’s panel reads that proposals comprise four new buildings between four and nine storeys high “located around a central open space”.
One of these is planned to front Kirkstall Road, relating in scale at one end to the red-brick church building and “rising in height to address the prominent” point where it meets the Viaduct Road corner.
It is proposed that 254 homes be created at the site. The report reads that one building fronting on to Viaduct Road could “potentially be able to accommodate another 40 to 60 units, albeit these are outside the pre-application site area”.
The report reads: “The site is located in a mixed-use area and this would represent the first proposal for residential use in the immediate vicinity, the closest residential properties being to the north to the east of Willow Road.
“Given the planning policy support for residential use in the city, it is considered that this use is acceptable in principle.
“A small amount of supporting use to provide local facilities and enliven ground-floor frontages is also considered appropriate for the development of this major site.”
But the developer may have to note the Kirkstall Road Renaissance Area Planning Framework, an informal guide for planners which “aims to promote the regeneration of the area in a manner which will establish a real sense of place and guide developers in formulating proposals for the redevelopment of land using positive urban design principles”.
The site also is close to another vacant Kirkstall Road plot which is set to be transformed into more than 1,300 homes and public space at the now-demolished old Yorkshire Chemical Works if developer Clyde Ltd’s two-part ‘City Reach’ plans are successful.
Members of the panel will comment on Prospect Estate’s plans but no formal action will be taken as it is only due to be presented for information purposes. RACEGOERS EXPERIENCED the sights and sounds of an era when meetings resembled a travelling circus during an ambitious reconstruction of a 1960s race day in Yorkshire.
Beverley Racecourse hosted its Bygone Beverley race day yesterday when a race day which took place on exactly the same date in 1960 was recreated.
A cast of colourful characters and attractions from the era featured, including Prince Monolulu, a legendary tipster who claimed to be an African Prince and was regarded as a national treasure.
Bookmakers with stands from the era demonstrated tic tac, the secret sign language of the racetrack, and a vintage ‘Beverley Bar’ double-decker bus staffed by bus conductors in 1960s uniforms shuttled visitors to and from the event from the town.
Kate McKee, the racecourse’s marketing manager, said: “It’s the first opportunity we’ve had on a bank holiday to recreate the race day of May 7, 1960. We did a lot of research into what it was like and it was very different to what a race day is like today.
“It was like a travelling circus coming in.
“We really wanted to make it as authentic as possible and give people that feeling that they are being taken back in time.” Racecourse staff and racegoers dressed in the outfits and fashions of the times, a gipsy told fortunes and hustlers performed traditional sideshows.
Racecourse chaplains attended, as clergymen often preached at racecourses in those days, while exotic animals such as meerkats, lizards and snakes – once commonplace race-day attractions – also featured.
Residents from three local care homes attended as guests.