Battle lines drawn as council bids to find sites for thousands of homes

PLANNERS IN Barnsley are facing increasing challenges from housing developers, who will this month try to de-rail their attempts to build new homes in villages.

The backlash is a result of an extended process of finding sites for the thousands of homes which are known to be needed to meet the district’s housing needs into the 2030s.

Council officials now stand accused of making unsuitable choices for housing land in two villages, with developers set to make a case for alternative sites when a Government planning inspector conducts an examination of their proposals in a public hearing.

Green Belt sites in the villages of Oxspring and Silkstone Common have been proposed by the council among sites to provide new homes, in a response to an earlier criticism from the inspector that too little development in Barnsley’s rural communities was proposed.

Now Miller Homes has begun lobbying for the development of a ten hectare site in Silkstone Common, capable of taking 200 homes, instead of a site found by the council which could take 50.

In Oxspring, the council’s preferred site on Green Belt fields alongside the River Don is being challenged by developer Yorkshire Land, which insists a larger site on the edge of the village is a wiser choice.

Villagers in both communities are opposed to the council’s proposals, but in each case also argue that there are problems with the sites suggested by developers.

Planning consultant Paul Butler, working for Miller Homes, attended a meeting of Silkstone Parish Council to explain the plan and found opposition from residents.