Changes to new homes allocations across Bradford district go out to public consultation

5:05am Tuesday 24th November 2015

By Jo Winrow

 

People can have their say from tomorrow on changes to Bradford Council’s blueprint for future land use across the district over coming years.

The Local Plan will eventually guide where houses, businesses and leisure and retail developments are built for the next ten to 20 years and be used by the local authority when deciding on planning applications.

The Core Strategy of the Local Plan was submitted to the Government almost a year ago and hearings followed in March resulting in the new changes.

The overall number of new homes needed in Bradford district by 2030 remains the same at 42,100 in the latest draft, but some areas will have more homes, while others will have fewer.

Andrew Marshall, Bradford Council’s planning and transport strategy manager, said some areas needed to be reviewed which resulted in a “slight redistribution” of where houses could be built.

He said Heritage England raised issues around Haworth and the World Heritage Site in Saltaire, leading to fewer homes being planned there.

The number of houses planned for Haworth has gone from 500 to 400 and in Shipley the figure drops from 1,250 to 750.

Areas in Wharfedale and Airedale, due to debate about the effect on the protected habitat of the South Pennine Moors, have more housing under the revised plans.

Burley-in-Wharfedale’s allocation has jumped from 200 to 700 and in Menston, the number of houses changes from 400 to 600.

The number of houses needed to be built in Ilkley has changed from 800 to 1,000 and in Silsden the new figure is 1,200, up by 200 from the initial draft.

Some areas of Bradford also see a reduction in the allocation for new homes. Bradford city centre drops from 3,500 to 3,100 and Bradford North East from 4,700 to 4,400.

Consultation on the changes runs for eight weeks and is required before the Core Strategy can be formally adopted.

The Core Strategy is the key document which makes up the Local Plan, which also involves two area action plans – one for Bradford city centre and one for Shipley and the Canal Road corridor – and a waste management development plan document.

It is expected that these sections of the blueprint will reach the next stage in the process shortly.

Initial consultation on the final part of the Local Plan, the allocations development plan document where sites are earmarked for different types of development, will begin in the next couple of months.

Mr Marshall said: “The core strategy doesn’t allocate the land, but it sets out how much and where and other policies. All of the land, other than in the two area action plans and the waste development plan document, will be allocated during the allocations development plan document phase.

“This is where we will allocate land for housing and jobs in line with the core strategy.”

Mr Marshall added that he expected to have everything apart from the allocations document adopted by the Government’s deadline of early 2017. He said the criteria for this was not clear, but Bradford would be well on the way to having the whole plan adopted.

He said: “If we are well on track with the allocations document at submission stage, we think it is highly unlikely that the Government would intervene.”

Documents highlighting the proposed changes together with the reasons for the changes will be available at main council offices and main libraries from tomorrow. They will also be available online at bradford.gov.uk/ldf.

Comments will be submitted to the independent government inspector Stephen Pratt, who held the hearings in March, for his consideration.