In the eighth of a series of 27 articles analysing the key study into the availability of land in Bradford, Reporter KATHRYN BRADLEY looks in depth at the possibilities for housing sites in Bingley.
"Bingley is full" and lacks the infrastructure to cope with any more housing development, a councillor has warned.
Bradford Council has ear-marked 18 sites in Bingley, Crossflatts and Mickleth-waite as suitable now or potentially suitable for up to 1,866 homes over the next 17 years in the first stage of producing its Local Development Framework.
More than 76 per cent of the sites identified in the Council's Strategic Housing Land Availability assess-ment (SHLAA) are green-field.
Ward councillor David Heseltine (Con) said: "Bingley has seen its fair share of growth, if not more, over the last ten years. We lack the infrastructure to cope with the development that has already taken place.
"We need to be connected to decent roads before there is any consultation on releasing more green fields for building. Motorists heading in to Bradford or Leeds are already getting stuck in traffic blackspots.
"The trains are already over capacity at rush hour and they are often full by Shipley. If people can't get on the trains they will get in their cars. It is like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
"The schools are also full.
Beckfoot School has been rebuilt and can't get any bigger on that site. Bingley Grammar is on a constrained site and is already over capacity.
"The Section 106 money paid by developers towards education in the area is nowhere near enough to compensate."
Among the sites put forward in Bingley is a 1.45 hectare playing field in Keighley Road, which is classed as previously developed land. The Council's consultation document states the site, which is described as "underused" and "not maintained", would need to be declared surplus to requirements before it could be released for 46 homes.
An employment site, protected in the Council's Revised Unitary Development Plan, at Coolgardie, Keighley Road, has also been identified for 102 homes.
The proportion of homes proposed for greenbelt land include up to 342 in Sheriff Lane, Eldwick, 198 in Gilstead Lane, 37 in Heights Lane, Eldwick and 25 at Greenhill Barn in Lady Lane. Permission has already been granted for up to 205 homes in Whitley Street and a further 11 in Lady Lane. The former cottage hospital in Fernbank Drive has also been earmarked for 25 homes and Gilstead Water Works could become available for development in the future.
Micklethwaite has been identified for a large chunk of the homes in Bingley, with 24 proposed for a green-field site in Micklethwaite Lane and another 50 in greenbelt land in Greenhill Drive.
The controversial Sty Lane site has also been earmarked for 443 homes, despite strong opposition to previous applications from local residents.
Campaigners from Greenhill Action Group (GAG) spent £30,000 fighting a planning application for 420 homes in 2010 and are well on the way to raising another £60,000 to fight a planning appeal in February.
GAG vice-chairman Mick Meares said: "This is another sign the Council is not listening to the public. There are 13,000 empty houses in Bradford but instead of cleaning up the empty and derelict sites in the city centre, the Council is looking to destroy greenfields.
"We have got to challenge their forecasts for the number of homes they will need in the future because the sit-uation is not sustainable."
The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is a technical document which will provide a pool of sites from which to select land to be allocated for housing when preparing the Local Development Framework.
The Framework is a blueprint that will manage development and growth across the district over the next 15 years.
Consultation on its core strategy document, which sets out a long-term spatial vision for the district until 2028, is continuing. It sets out broad locations for development and policies that will influ-ence the use of land and the type and scale of development permitted, as well as identifying key infrastructure requirements.
The overall Local Development Framework is not expected to come into effect until 2013 with consultation over specific land allocations next year.
Sites included in the existing SHLAA might not make it into the land allocations documents and final framework as no decisions have yet been taken on any of the sites. Further potential sites could be identified as the assessment is updated every year.
Planning policies will continue to emphasise that brownfield sites are the priority over greenfield land, according to the Council.
THE LONG-TERM LAND STRATEGY
The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is a technical document which will provide a pool of sites from which to select land to be allocated for housing when preparing the Local Development Framework.
The Framework is a blueprint that will manage development and growth across the district over the next 15 years.
Consultation on it's core strategy document, which sets out a long-term spatial vision for the district until 2028, is continuing. It sets out broad locations for development and policies that will influence the use of land and the type and scale of development permitted, as well as identifying key infrastructure requirements.
The overall Local Development Framework is expected to come into effect in 2013 with consultation over specific land allocations taking place during 2012.
Sites included in the current SHLAA may not make it into the land allocations documents and final framework. In addition further potential sites could be identified as the assessment is updated every year.
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