Planning application refused: Bid to build 13 new homes in Calderdale village rejected
Developers have been refused planning permission to build 13 homes in a Calderdale village.
Calderdale Council planning committee members went against planning officers’ recommendation that Camperlands Builders Ltd’s detailed scheme to build the homes at Rocklands, Scout Road, Mytholmroyd, should be approved.
The site has outline planning permission for building up to 20 homes there.
A majority of the councillors cited guidance – including Calderdale’s Local Plan which was adopted last year and a design “placemaking” document – on design as reasons for refusal.
Chair, Coun Colin Hutchinson, said these said developments should ensure development was visually attractive, sympathetic to the local character and history, and minimising visual intrusion.
“My feeling is that the attempt to provide a level platform through large scale retaining walls goes against those policies,” he said.
A spokesperson for the developers said the company was not trying to develop anything contentious at the site, and had made multiple compromises with the council’s planning team to come to this application, which planning officers supported.
Issues had been raised by objectors about the elevation of the houses, including impact on nearby school Scout Road Academy.
The spokesperson said as well as reducing the number of homes - from 20 to 13 - the size of the homes had been reduced in size from three-and-a-half storeys to two-and-a-half storeys, although not the rooftop level.
The spokesman said: “When the outline planning was approved for 20 houses, in my opinion there’s a tacit agreement that an adopted road would be required.
“We all know that the slope down to an adopted road needs to be shallow and that shallow access to an adopted road means there needs to be a retaining wall to hold up that adopted road.
“Unfortunately, that determined the elevation of the houses that go on the far side of the road.”
Planning officers had requested parking be provided at the side of the houses and they had to be at a certain elevation to be able to do that, he said.
Objectors concerns also included the height of the wall, stability of the land and that the development would be overbearing.