Developer quizzed on housing scheme

Keepmoat, Hull Council’s development partner, has cut the numbers of homes earmarked for the former Riley College site from 401 to 348, after residents raised concerns. The original scheme proposed just 290.

At the latest consultation aboard a bus that made the rounds of the area yesterday, the developer outlined improvements to plans which it claims will address concerns about traffic and flooding, on the site between Anlaby Road, Alliance Avenue and Spring Bank West.

The move comes after the Government finally signed off on an announcement made more than a year ago to allocate £8m from the Regional Growth Fund towards regeneration schemes in the west of the city.

In all Keepmoat will be building 1,200 homes over the next 13 years, with the council putting in around £9m and Keepmoat £118m.

Partnerships and development team manager Maria Clayton, from Hull Council, said: “The drop from 401 to 348 was largely to address concerns raised at the last consultation event. There’s a higher proportion of detached housing, around 25 per cent.

“Some of the highways are narrower to avoid rat-running and we have introduced some added traffic-calming measures such as raised tables to prevent people using it as a cut-through from Anlaby Road to Spring Bank or vice-versa.”

The site flooded five years ago in 2007. Miss Clayton said pipes “big enough to drive a small Mini through” would be run under a linear park in the development which would store surface water in the event of a heavy downpour until it could be released into the system. The scheme is due to go before the council’s planning committee next month.

If approved construction could begin in October.