Major expansion plans for city’s ‘top’ borough

The Kingswood Area Action Plan, which could go to public consultation next month subject to approval by councillors, comes after the neighbourhood was identified as a focus for major housing growth, which is described as “crucial” to meeting the city’s housing and business development needs.

Its vision for Kingswood by 2028 is for “a new leafy suburb of Hull, offering a healthy lifestyle in a friendly, safe and modern environment”.

Other proposals include shops, a community-led fruit and vegetable co-operative, a park, allotments, a new link road, riverside business development, and a community and youth centre on the eastern side of Kingswood, which would all be additional to the ongoing Kingswood Parks development to the west.

There would also be a network of cycleways and footpaths to “minimise” the use of the car, with direct routes to the nearby countryside.

The new homes will range from family-sized houses to smaller accommodation for single people, while 15 per cent of the total will be “affordable”.

The Options document, a summary of which will be sent to households in the area, says the buildings will be of a “new Hull-style design, using solutions and technologies to address flood risk, crime prevention and to encourage a low-carbon lifestyle”.

Kingswood, which first began being developed in the 1990s, which initially intended to provide 4,000 jobs, and so far has delivered about half that number, according to the plan.

However, opinion in the area remains divided over future employment growth.

Although most respondents to a survey named retail as the sector they would most like to see developed, others wanted manufacturing and office jobs, while some said there should be no more businesses on Kingswood.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has also suggested that the proposed employment land near the River Hull should be left as open space, or as agriculture providing biomass and local food, and reserved for wildlife, flood management and community access.

Residents did say more should be made to incorporate the river on their doorstep.

The development would seek to capitalise on the success of Kingswood so far.

The plan highlights the area’s “unique residential offer”, adding: “Kingswood is the top performing neighbourhood in Hull based on a number of indicators including housing market performance, council tax band, physical indicators, open space, income, education attainment, crime, and long-term limiting illness.”