I was delighted to read the articles New Homes Will Create ‘Crisis for the Future’ and Protesters on the March Against Housing Plans (October 7), and again, Homes Plan Leads to Flood of Protest (October 14). I fully acknowledge that Bradford needs more homes, but: 1. The 2007 Menston supplementary planning document envisaged ‘small pockets of residential development in a parkland setting’, using natural stone (“reconstituted stone should not be used”), and extremely limited use of three-storey properties. The planning inspector himself saw 150 properties on the site as the maximum. The plans are for 174 properties, with a number of three-storey ones, and no use of natural materials. The plans are to build the wrong type of homes.
2. A brief walk around Bradford City centre reveals a number of large brownfield sites as yet undeveloped, and a similar walk around Guiseley shows a number of partially developed sites, with many unsold properties. In addition, the roads local to the site, and the A65 in particular, are already under severe pressure, as are the rail facilities. It is unclear that they will be able to cope with the developments already under way, let alone what is now proposed. The plans are to build in the wrong place.
3. Finally, we are being told to prepare for several more tough years with the economy struggling, property prices falling, loans being hard to acquire, and tens of thousands more jobs projected to be lost. The plans are to build at the wrong time.
The plans that have been lodged to develop Derry Hill at Menston are wholly inadequate. At the time of writing, well over 500 letters of objection have been scanned on to the council’s planning website, and another 500 or so are still to be added. It is worth reading a sample. They vary from the passionate to the logical. Some are both. Together they indicate a community united in its objection to what is proposed.
Come on Barratts, and come on Bradford Council, it is time to acknowledge that these are the wrong homes, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
John Crosse
Moor Lane, Menston
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