Housing plan raises questions over blurred city boundaries

Councillors in Bradford are currently planning future housing in the city and this week senior councillors will consider plans to develop the Holme Wood and Tong areas.

Members of the council’s executive board will consider two options for housing growth: the first would designate the site as being suitable for 600 homes while a second option would declare the area as being suitable for 2,700 properties.

Officers are recommending that councillors should back the second option – although this would involve the development of some land currently designated as being green belt.

They say the proposal would regenerate the area, deliver comprehensive change, attract private investment and increase the choice and types of housing available to people in the area.

However, council chiefs in Leeds were asked to comment on future planning options, including this proposal and others, and in a report considered at a meeting earlier this month officers raised fears that re-drawing the green belt boundary to enable the developments “would encroach into the strategic gap between Leeds and Bradford” leading to a merging of the two cities.

Officers were also concerned that if the sites are accepted as being suitable for future development, they would create traffic congestion.

A report to Friday’s Bradford Council’s executive committee says councillors in Leeds decided at their meeting this month to comment further once Bradford had decided which option to pursue.

The councillors in Leeds agreed that creating 2,700 homes would have a “significant impact” upon traffic.

Bradford Council’s current planning exercise will establish the city’s need for housing between now and 2028.

Planning officials have already estimated that the city will need an additional 45,500 homes as the district copes with an increasing population.

City leaders are keen to see previously developed sites, which assist regeneration, used first – but some green belt locations may be used.

The purpose of the blueprint is to identify broad locations for development, agree the type and scale of development to be allowed and identify facilities, such as roads and schools, which would be needed if any schemes were given the go-ahead.

Sites across the district are being considered as part of the planning blueprint, with sites in areas such as Haworth being considered for future development.

A report to members says: “Bradford district has a growing population and requires an additional 2,700 new residential properties annually in order to meet the needs of its population.

“The council must ensure through the Local Development Plan (LDP) that land is made available to address this need and that new housing creates popular neighbourhoods with high standards of design linked to good transport networks with easy access to employment and amenities.

“Holme Wood and Tong have good access to adjacent countryside and to a number of employment sites in Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield.

“Close proximity to the M606, M62 motorway network also makes this area an attractive location for businesses,” the report adds.

The local community and others have been consulted, and while results show much support for the regeneration opportunities option two offers, the majority were in favour of option one to build 600 homes. Responses from housing associations and developers however showed strong support for the second option to earmark the site as being suitable to build 2,700 homes.