Persimmon Planning Application
Some further detail to think abut when you come to make your own comments
Persimmon Homes have submitted their planning application for 140 more houses in Silsden. This time on the familiar and much loved fields at Hawber Cote, to be accessed from a new junction at Bolton Road. The fields you see in the image above, will soon look like this map below if they get their way:
The Big Picture
For years now Silsden has received more than its fair share of new houses. This is because of the current Local Development Plan for the Bradford District. Silsden is identified as a ‘Growth Centre’ and no one can doubt that the Council have been true to their word on that one!
This plan dates back to 2005 and is now wildly out of date. Housing development based on this has been haphazard and uncontrolled, skirting all reasonable requirements for open space, good quality landscaping, housing for local needs, improved public transport, or any consideration for truly sustainable development. Climate change awareness, Covid and increased concern about our urban and rural environments, are all factors dictating that we simply cannot allow this to continue. Silsden Campaign for the Countryside is not opposed to new houses, but it is opposed to new houses that are not part of properly considered, truly sustainable plan for the community.
Our current (2005) Plan released huge areas of green fields from greenbelt, and said that they would be suitable for development. These are the green are shown below. The Persimmon site is edged blue:
As you can see the site is within one of these green areas, and the three road connections shown on their plan mean that they could connect up with the rest of this green area, right up to Swartha. Bear in mind that much of these green areas has already been built on or has planning permission.
There is hope on the horizon. Bradford Council are currently working on a new Local Development Plan, and the latest draft shows reduced areas for housing. (See our illustration of this on our Planning Page). More than half of the Persimmon site is not included as housing in the new plan. This means that Persimmon, and other speculative developers, are trying to get planning permission now on the basis of this outdated Local Plan, before the new one gets adopted.
It’s vital that this is not allowed to go ahead. If it did, it would be open season on all the remaining green areas. The government imposed housing numbers could be exceeded, even before the new plan is in place. If you think this is crazy, you would be right!
A Road to Nowhere
The current Plan was originally based on the idea that there would be a new bypass built to the east of Silsden, presumably to be paid for by future housing development. This never happened because Bradford Council allowed planning approvals for housing to slip by without making sure that the road was built. The popular view is that the road is not a good idea anyway, but at the very least it is an unwelcome ghost from the past. Just because the Council have not been vigilant on this with past planning applications does not mean that this should be allowed to happen again. We have been left with many more houses, more traffic and no improvement to our traffic problems.
Housing Numbers
In 2017 Bradford Council finally approved a local plan which gave Silsden an ‘allocation’ of: 1200 units for the period 2013-30
It would appear that there was good news from Bradford Council last year when they said that this allocation was to decrease; however, many of the homes that have already been built won’t count as the years the allocation covers ie the Plan Period is also to change.
It’s expected the new plan will be approved in 2023 this will then give Silsden and allocation of: 700 units for the period 2020-38
This means that the c 500 units given planning permission and built before 2020 won’t count towards this new total. Some schemes which have been approved but not built (c 200 units) will be carried forward but this will still leave another 500 homes needing to be built before 2038
New School
Setting aside the traffic issues and the accepted view that the new school is in the wrong place, it is none the less in an enviable location for pupils and staff. To quote Bradford Council’s leader it is ‘on the edge of the town with amazing views across the valley, which the children will love’. Unfortunately this wonderful setting would be completely degraded by this proposed housing development.
Furthermore Bradford Education confirms that the school is very near capacity and does not guarantee places for all children in Silsden who wish to attend the brand new school if housing numbers were to increase.
Traffic
Our town has been clobbered with roadworks, mains services upgrades, and constant delays and inconvenience caused by housing development. The formation of a new road junction to serve this development can only worsen this situation. Persimmons analysis seeks to convince us that the location is well served by public transportation yet it includes 292 new parking spaces to serve the new development.
Drainage
Silsden has a history of flooding. Persimmons studies show that the ground where they intend to build is not suitable for sustainable drainage of surface water. This means that every roof, road and new driveway will have its surface water collected and sent into our mains sewers. This is impossible when there is heavy rain, so they propose to build large holding tanks for rainwater and then release it into the sewers at a time when they will not overflow. This is not true for all the foul water, which can’t be held in this way, and will run directly into the existing overloaded sewer.
This tells us that this is not a sustainable location to build. Our sewers are regularly overloaded to the point where they have to be ‘opened’ to allow untreated sewage to escape. There is no plan to improve the existing mains drainage system.
Landscape
Whilst the site does not have a specified legal status as ‘special’ and would therefore be protected from development, it is no less special to us. Our local landscape is distinctive and attractive. It’s why people want to come and live here. Paving over fields destroys the very thing that people find desirable.
Wildlife and Ecology
By way of illustration of how professional studies can come up with nonsensical conclusions, Persimmons’ ‘Shadow Habitats Regulations Assessment says ‘ With both on-site and off-site measures in place, it is anticipated that the overall residual effect of the proposed development will provide a net gain in biodiversity.’ Your question might be then ‘on what planet is this possible?’
Heritage
If you haven’t already seen these, please see our ‘Silsden’s Green Ring’ film and ‘Our Heritage Fields’ leaflet at our website www.silsdencountryside.org. These fields have their own unique story and exhibit a living history. An invaluable educational and recreational resource. This is difficult to quantify in a technical way, but easy on a personal level, so please find your own way of expressing this.
