This is one of the last of Aireborough’s old mill sites, and  has been long in the development of plans.  It has been the subject of heated debate over heritage buildings and their use,  the retention of the chimneys,  and the danger of traffic on Green Lane, an already dangerous road.

Old plans have been  to Leeds Plans Panel to get guidance on how the development application should be brought forward.  The view of the Leeds Plans Panel, was that they wanted to see something innovative in both of use and design,  and pointed to the development of other old mills as good examples.

We now have this application with 93 houses, 46 units in the heritage building, and a care home – with a number of heritage buildings kept. A green corridor with stream, and public access has been put around the site.

Questions on this site:

• Is this plan innovative enough?  What more could be done?
• Has the issue with traffic onto a dangerous road been solved?
• Are there enough links for walking and cycling to the site?  If not where could these be put?
• Has enough been done to incorporate heritage features into the site?
• Is the design and fabric of the building suitable?
• Thinking about how people will live on the site, are there enough connections to services?  If not what should be there?
• Is the water course enough to alleviate any issues of surface water flooding, the risk of which is high in this area?
• Does the care home, which will provide some employment, have the right level of facilities and amenities for residents and how they can mix with other people in the area?

How To Comment

You can read all the relevant document here: there are quite a number,  so we will point out the plan is at ‘proposed planning layout’, and the ‘design and access’ statement is another useful overview document before getting into specific details.   The ‘planning statement document’ also gives an overview of what the developers are hoping to achieve in line with the national planning policy framework.

Comments of support, or objection,  can be sent directly to the Leeds web portal above,  there is only a short time to make comments which need to be in by 17th October 2014.

Please also email aireboroughnp@gmail.com with ideas for improving the area to make the best of the site and area so that we can put these in the ‘pot’ for potential in the neighbourhood plan.