Outline £60m Crosslee Park plan with 130 homes, supermarket and retirement village to go before committee

The applicants, Crosslee Properties Ltd, have already said that if passed the development on the site of the former Crosslee factory at Brighouse Road, Hipperholme, will be called Crosslee Park to reflect the site’s manufacturing heritage.

Outline plans to develop the site will be considered by Calderdale Council’s Planning Committee when it meets at Halifax Town Hall on Tuesday, February 15, from 2pm – much of the detail would have to be considered at a later date.

The scheme is controversial as it is one of a number of developments planned in the area causing some residents concern about issues including the ability of highways and infrastructure to cope, particularly the impact on the busy Hipperholme crossroads.

Taylor Wimpey Yorkshire and Crosslee Properties Ltd were given permission last June to build 91 new homes close to the site, where the outline plan had initially been rejected by councillors but allowed on appeal.

The latest application seeks to establish the principle of development and means of access, and council planners recommend councillors approve them, subject to a legal agreement which would see the developer contributing £538,710 towards extra school places the homes are estimated to create, £90,000 towards extra road crossings, and £54,219 towards “sustainable” travel including Metrocards.

In all 106 new homes, a care home and 24 assisted living bungalows are planned.

The developer has also agreed to some commitments requested by the regarding affordable housing.

Planning lead officer, Richard Seaman, says it is being brought before the committee for determination because of the sensitivity of the proposal.

Twenty eight letters of objection and 11 letters of support have been received, according to the briefing papers.

Objectors are worried about the scale of the development, the impact on traffic including lengthening queues at the crossroads, complaints that it has not been scrutinised enough in the Local Plan process, adverse impact on air quality, concerns infrastructure including GP surgeries and schools can cope, loss of habitat and a feeling there is not enough affordable housing included in the plans.

Those who have commented supporting the application say the scheme will improve the area, will create jobs, boosting the economy, will reduce traffic travelling out of the area to supermarkets, provide more affordable homes and housing for older people and is good use of a “brownfield” site.

Planning officers conclude all the site does not need retaining for employment land and the housing elements are acceptable in principle.

Officers also conclude that infrastructure can cope with the mitigation agreed by the developer.

Objections include concerns about the site’s industrial past as a munitions factory site during the Great War, including use of highly toxic chemicals, but the officers’ report says testes have been undertaken and conclude that the presence of picric acid on the site does not pose a human health risk to the proposed end users or development workers, and that no further investigation or remedial works are required with regards to this contaminant.

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