What is being built at Hipperholme Crosslee site: 'Let residents decide how to spend housing cash' call from Calderdale councillor
Residents should have some say over how money from developers building new homes in their area should be spent, says a Calderdale councillor.
Barratt Homes received planning permission to build 172 homes – and co-applicant Torsion Care a 72-bed care home – on the former Crosslee factory site at Hipperholme last autumn.
One of the ward councillors for the area, Coun George Robinson, is seeking assurances residents will have a say in how cash which the council can obtain to spend on improving the area through legal agreements – known as a Section 106 agreement – is going to be spent.
In different aspects, planning councillors were told last autumn legal agreements will secure around £1m-worth of improvements relating to the Crosslee development.
Coun Robinson (Con, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe) said included in part of the permission there was a sum of £240,000 Section 106 contribution specifically to be spent on open space improvements within 1.2 kilometres of the site, for example.
Speaking at a full council meeting, he said: “We want to see as much bang for the developer’s buck as possible.
“May I ask for the cabinet’s firm commitment that residents and councillors will be consulted on their priorities in relation to the spending of the money, and may I also ask that there is some monitoring in place to ensure the S106 contribution is spent within 1.2km of the site as per the planning permission?”
Responding, cabinet member for Climate Action and Housing, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said: “We can definitely go back and liaise and talk about how the Section 106 agreement funds are properly spent within the locale.”