Anger at greenfield homes plan

However the decision to try and develop three greenfield sites Hull Council owns in Cottingham in the neighbouring East Riding looks set to ignite controversy coming after a referendum voted overwhelmingly against the expansion of the city’s boundaries.

The homes, a mixture of council homes, for open market sale and shared ownership, will be built by a consortium of Keepmoat Limited and Strata Homes Limited along with affordable housing provider Home Group Limited and commercial property specialists Priority Space, in a move the council says will bring private investment in excess of £500m to the area.

The first 236 properties will be built on brownfield sites including the former Greif site on Southcoates Lane from Spring next year.

However around 500 homes could be built off Priory Road, Cottingham, on land currently being grazed by horses, with around 500 others on sites off Eppleworth Road and Willerby Low Road. Another 2,000, or more, are earmarked to be built off Wawne Road, in an extension to the Kingswood estate.

Coun John Black, who holds the housing portfolio for Hull Council, said the sale of land at Cottingham would help subsidise the redevelopment of the Preston Road area, in east Hull.

He added: “We have got a while for it to sink in, there isn’t any ultimatum. Hull City Council owns the land. It needs to maximise its land resource and plough it back into housing.

“It is across the boundary in another authority, but we are hoping East Riding Council sees the benefits and puts it in their plan.”

However Cottingham councillor Ros Jump criticised the council’s “insensitivity” for announcing the plans so soon after the referendum.

She said: “I don’t know where Hull Council is coming from - they have swathes of other land to develop but they seem hell-bent on putting it on land between Hull and ourselves.

“You’d have thought after the referendum it would take a softly-softly approach but then they immediately talk about a ginormous planning application which will get everybody’s backs up. There will be rioting on the streets - they certainly won’t endear themselves to residents by doing that.

“They don’t do subtle - everything is done with a blunt instrument.”

Fellow councillor Geraldine Mathieson added: “I certainly think there will be protests because people are extremely worried about increased flood risk to the village and about losing their identity and being joined up to Hull.”

The land off Priory Road is considered a key open area by East Riding Council, but not Hull Council, which argued that it should be allocated for housing in a recent public inquiry.

City planning manager Alex Codd said yesterday: “East Riding has to build a lot of homes and so do we. Is it best to build them in small villages miles from services? With the sites south of Cottingham you have easy access to the city but you are also within walking distance of the village centre, so it has to be a sensible and sustainable location for future housing developments.”