A DOCUMENT that will guide future development across Leeds - including in Aireborough and Wharfedale - is set to be approved this week.

Leeds City Council’s Executive Board will be asked to endorse the final version of the Site Allocations Plan (SAP) on Wednesday, June 26. The SAP, produced following an extensive period of preparation and consultation, will steer the locations of future local housing, greenspace and development.

The final report on the plan agrees that it provides ‘an appropriate basis for the planning of the city’ but also recommends that some changes - including not allocating 32 green belt plots for housing - be made. Those changes, though, will not affect proposed development sites in Wharfedale, Aireborough or Horsforth: to the dismay of campaigners.

Jennifer Kirkby from Aireborough Neighbourhood Development Forum said the SAP represented a ‘hammer blow to sustainability in Aireborough, but Guiseley in particular’.

She added: “It will not provide the type of housing the area does require, for example smaller properties, but exacerbate all our current problems such as traffic congestion and air pollution. Local people have responded in their thousands to point out all their issues, and have been ignored.”

Four local Green Belt sites, on Ings Lane, Hollins Hill, Wills Gill, and Victoria Avenue, are now in line to be developed along with an ‘employment hub’ near Leeds Bradford airport

Councillor Colin Campbell (Lib Dem, Otley & Yeadon) has concerns too but points out that the SAP will also deliver benefits. He said: “The good news is that the document means communities can resist future speculative housing development, but the bad news is that it will allow some development on local green field sites.

“This will affect Yeadon in particular, with housing proposed off Glenmere Mount and a large employment site in the Green Belt north of the airport.

“The East of Otley site is retained for housing, though given its old designation in the Unitary Development plan this was hard to resist. And the developments proposed for Pool-in-Wharfedale will produce extra traffic which will have an impact on Otley.”