Housing developer contributes £500k

CASH totalling more than £500,000 will be stumped up by a developer to boost local schools and public spaces after plans for 68 houses were approved.

The homes will make up the third phase of development at Barnburgh Lane, Goldthorpe, west of the first two phases of the Gleeson builds.

Planning consent – given on Tuesday – will see ten two-bed, 40 three-bed, 16 four-bed houses and two two-bed bungalows built, bringing the total number of houses on the estate to 274.

Gleeson will provide more than £380,000 in Section 106 payments – cash set aside for loss of amenity – to contribute towards 14 primary school and ten secondary school places.

Almost £126,000 will contribute to offsite open spaces, and a further £51,750 will be used to provide sustainable travel options.

Access will be taken from an existing road from West Moor Croft, and a report to Barnsley Council’s planning board states that the site is currently an ‘open, greenfield site with a mix of hedgerow, scrub and grassland’.

Electric vehicle charge points are recommended, and seven of the homes will be deemed ‘affordable’.

Twenty-nine comments were lodged by residents to the original and amended scheme.

Residents raised concerns around the impact on roads from new residents and construction traffic, speeding, loss of privacy, impact on wildlife and ‘existing issues with drainage’.

The report adds that highways officers have assessed the access and deemed it ‘acceptable subject to conditions’.

Officers also accepted that traffic associated with the development ‘can be accommodated’.

“The development secures 68 dwellings on the remaining land allocated under site HS45, delivering housing in accordance with this allocation,” a council report said.

“It meets the various requirements and standards alongside a Section 106 contributions package which is sufficient to appropriately mitigate identified impacts.”