Have your say over land
RESIDENTS’ VIEWS ON NINE-ACRE SITE FOR HOUSING ARE SOUGHT
PEOPLE living near land at Lepton in Huddersfield earmarked for housing are being urged to have their say on plans via a virtual public consultation.
Up to 75 two, three and four-bedroom family homes are earmarked for a nine-acre (3.65-hectare) site at the corner of the A629 Penistone Road and Rowley Lane.
The scheme would also involve the creation of a roundabout on Penistone Road and a new access road into the estate from Rowley Lane.
A spokesman for the landowner said: “Before we submit a planning application, we’d like to consult with the local community.”
However due to restrictions around Covid-19 it will have to be within a virtual format.
The Lepton site forms part of Kirklees Council’s controversial Local Plan. Local councillors urged residents potentially affected by the project to respond.
Clr Alison Munro (Lib Dem, Almondbury) said she had been pressing the developers to move beyond a leaflet drop and to hold virtual meetings.
She added: “It is only right that people feel they can have their say, which is important as there are so many issues with the site.
“The developers have declined so far to do this, which is not good enough.
“Any development here will not protect or enhance the setting of Woodsome Hall, a Grade I- listed building, a part of our local heritage and considered by the Government to be of the highest significance.
“Additionally the accumulation of traffic at the Penistone Road/Rowley Lane junction will cause immense problems. I am therefore urging people to respond.”
Her ward colleague Clr Bernard McGuin (Conservative) raised concerns over problematic access and increased traffic.
He said: “The area was designated in Kirklees’s Local Plan as a place where building can take place.
“However when the planning inspector did this she said that there had to be a joined-up plan to connect this area with two areas above.
“This potential development fails to meet that recommendation.
“It is also suggested there should be an access road off Rowley Lane.
“This, at the moment, is totally unacceptable because there is no pavement on that side of the road.
“There is also a blind bend. “Traffic backs up Rowley Lane and the development fails to account for a need to create a roundabout to create an egress and access to any development between Penistone Road and Lepton Great Woods.
“If they put in a formal planning application I would hope that it would be rejected on these grounds.”
Kirklees’s Local Plan, which will see tens of thousands of new homes built in the borough, was adopted in February 2019.
An order from the Government, the Local Plan includes 31,000 homes, many of which will have to be built within the green belt, as there is insufficient non-green belt land in the borough.
It equates to building 1,730 homes per annum in the borough.
The consultation can be found at: www.newhomesforlepton.co.uk