Residents fear flooding if housing plans are granted

COUNCILLORS are being told that plans for almost 300 homes in Menston, near Bradford, should be given the go-ahead - despite a mass of objections.

Hundreds of villagers have objected to two separate applications, one to build 174 homes at Derry Hill and another for 125 homes off Bingley Road.

Councillors on the area planning panel (Shipley) are expected to make a decision on the plans at a meeting on Tuesday, February 28, at Kirklands community centre, Menston.

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Up to 200 people are expected at the meeting, which begins at 9.45am.

Opponents of the plans are hoping to convince councillors to ignore the advice of the authority’s planning officers, who believe the plans should be approved.

Villager Alan Elsegood, of Menston Community Association, said the size of the developments would make worse the existing threat from flooding as well as add to traffic problems.

“I know we are called Nimbys but Menston has tight roads and there is a limit to what development can be put in. This really should be done with the consent of the community.”

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He said the proposals would “wreck the character of the village”, adding: “We don’t oppose development on principle but this is unsustainable.”

And Graham Booth, of Menston Action Group, said the main issue was concern over future flooding as the village had “huge volumes” of underground water.

He claimed Bradford Council officers had misunderstood their concerns over flooding.

“Bradford Council seem to think we are talking about surface water, which completely misunderstands what we are talking about. The real risks are from ground water.”

He denied that residents were against all housing plans.

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“We are not a group of Nimbys. We want to come up with ideas for housing but with these plans the scale is wrong.

“If they started building this they will cause serious harm to the whole community,” he added.

It is expected that an expert in flooding will make a presentation to councillors on behalf of the objectors,

The parish council has also objected to the housing plans.

In a joint objection with the community association, the parish council outlined a catalogue of objections and criticisms, including lack of provision for the elderly, failure to integrate affordable housing with the rest of the site and and fears over road safety.

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The parish council pointed out that in April last year a parish referendum was held with the motion that ‘the council should refuse the planning applications at Bingley Road and Derry Hill’. The result was 98 per cent in favour of the motion.

The council’s report, to be discussed at the meeting on February 28, concludes that the Bingley Road plans would help towards affordable homes targets.

It adds: “The site will have a positive drainage system discharging to sewers that are remote from the site by agreement with Yorkshire Water....it is not felt that there is any increased flood risk to the east of the site...”

Neither the Environment Agency nor Yorkshire Water have raised any objections to the application on flood risk or sewerage grounds.

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A planning report on the Derry Hill application says it will help boost the supply of new homes “at a time when housing delivery has dropped to undesirably low levels”.

The parish council and the community association have called for the Derry Hill plans to be rejected “until satisfactorily revised drainage proposals have been presented by the developer that meet the problems on Derry Hill in a comprehensive, adequate and lawful manner...”

But the council report says the plans can be granted permission as they accord with planning policies.