Tom Burnett

On housing in Leek

HOUSING is always a controversial point in a town the size of Leek.

The first fact to get out of the way is that we need more of it – both locally and on a national level.

Leek’s population is slightly more than 21,000 people – and this is only likely to rise over the coming decades.

The local plan approved by the district council means hundreds more homes should be built in the town over the coming – some areas, such as the Mount, are earmarked for development and it is a case of when rather than if homes will be build there.

There are few places that new homes in Leek would not be met with objections.

Any new homes on fields or greenbelt land around the outskirts of the town invariably proves unpopular – while any attempt to turn any of our many derelict mills or other vacant buildings into flats also raises objections – usually about parking.

There are valid concerns to be addressed here in both forms of development.

Nobody wants wanton developments in our beautiful countryside or to find our town is suddenly just a suburb of Stokeon-trent – the opposition to any scheme to make Leek part of a Greater Stoke Unitary Authority demonstrates that as much as any number of objections to new homes in the greenbelt does.

Similarly there’s no denying that parking for residents in the town centre can be a real problem.

The reality is we’re trying to wedge 21st century levels of car ownership onto streets built for 19th century mill workers – not a demographic known for their high levels of car ownership.

There’s no real way around that problem.

The streets are as they are and they’re not going to get any wider, or less crowded for vehicles.

The truth – however unpopular or unpalatable as it may be to some – is that the new developments need to go somewhere. And they are going to happen one way or another.

I’m not going to go into potential sites where housing should or could go, that’s not for me to decide – and I am sure many people have their own opinions on this.

No site is going to be universally popular.

More important than anything is making sure new homes are inkeeping with the town.

No-one wants to see Ballington Wood, left, replaced with tower blocks or an endless urban sprawl from Leek to Endon.