GREEN LIGHT RECOMMENDED FOR MORE THAN 150 HOMES

Plans for a development of more than 150 homes on the site of a West Yorkshire farm are recommended for approval tomorrow (18 March 2021).

Spawforths, on behalf of Wakefield District Housing, submitted an application to Wakefield Council last year for the land off Pope Street in Altofts, on the edge of the Wakefield Europort Industrial Estate.

Planning permission is sought for a total of 156 homes, with a mix of detached, semi-detached and terraced two-storey housing, as well as two bungalows. The house types would be predominated by three-bed semi-detached and terraced units.

A total of 47 units will be offered as affordable housing, representing about 30 per cent of the development.

The application also covers a new substation, parking, access, public open space and landscaping work.

The development is expected to support jobs during construction and generate about £12m of gross value added (GVA) for the region's economy.

The application will go before the council's Planning and Highways Committee on 18 March and an officer's report prepared for the meeting recommends that approval is granted, subject to conditions.

"The site is not within the Green Belt and is not subject to any other form of land use allocation or designation seeking to safeguard the site from development; however the site has not been allocated as a housing site.

"It is considered that the potential regenerative, social and economic benefits associated with allowing residential development to take place on the proposal's site would outweigh the conflict with the general spatial development strategy."

The recommendation has been made despite 18 individual objections received by the council, together with a petition with 582 signatories.

The application is a resubmission of plans originally lodged in 2019, which had proposed 161 homes on the site.

Green light recommended for more than 150 homes | Insider Media