£2.9m homes scheme for Eccleshill unveiled (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

£2.9m homes scheme for Eccleshill unveiled

6:50am Saturday 12th May 2012 in News By Tanya O'Rourke

An artist’s impressions of the Eccleshill homes

A £2.9 million scheme for 25 houses on land in Eccleshill, Bradford, has been welcomed by councillors.

The Yorkshire Housing properties will be built in Oakdale Drive and Ravenscliffe Avenue on a site previously occupied by bedsits.

The development, which is expected to be completed in November, will feature two, three and four-bedroom semi-detached properties.

Ward Councillors Geoff Reid and Ruth Billheimer said the development would be good for the area and welcomed the use of brownfield sites for development but said residents would have preferred to see more single-person accommodation and bungalows in the area.

Coun Reid (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) said: “We have to welcome additional housing of any sort in a sense but I expect local people would have been looking, if possible, for bungalows. But given that the plans are there the sooner they get on with it the better.”

He said it would be “good for Eccleshill as a whole” for people to take up properties in the area.

“It’s all very positive,” he added.

The Telegraph & Argus Save Our Green Spaces campaign calls for empty buildings and brownfield sites to be redeveloped before greenfield sites are used.

Supporting the campaign Coun Reid said: “If we are going to say hands off the green spaces we’ve got to go flat out to use already used land that we’ve got.”

Coun Billheimer (Lab, Eccleshill) echoed Coun Reid’s concerns about the need for bungalows but welcomed the development in principle.

“Ravenscliffe is becoming a very interesting mix of different types of housing,” she said. “In principle I think it’s a good thing. Hopefully the principle of a new build will help to regenerate Ravenscliffe and make the area a bit more dynamic. It’s obviously much better to build on brownfield sites than to take green spaces and it’s a good development.”

Contractor Strategic Team Group will be carrying out the project.

Linda Gray, development project manager at Yorkshire Housing, said: “Before we started on the development we consulted with the local community, councillors and the local authorities. It has always been Yorkshire Housing’s intention to build houses in this area based on the feedback we received from people who live locally.

“We were unable to build bungalows in this area as they need to be built on flat land for level access and Oakdale Drive and Ravenscliffe does not have this.”