91-home plan near Crosslee site in Hipperholme to go before planners

Calderdale Council’s Planning Committee will decide on the applications made by Taylor Wimpey Yorkshire and Crosslee Properties Ltd when it meets next Tuesday, June 15 (2pm), on the same day as a session devoted to the nearby Crosslee site at the third phase of hearings into Calderdale’s draft Local Plan which begins at 10am, is held.

Until closure, announced in 2019, 600 people once worked making tumble driers in the company’s Hipperholme factory.

The applicants have applied for reserved matters to be approved allowing 50 homes to be developed at land south of Brookelands, Brighouse Road, Hipperholme.

The committee had refused outline permission for the site in July 2017 but the applicants appealed to the Planning Inspectorate who allowed the application in February 2018.

The second application is an outline one for 41 homes, and associated access and ancillary works at land east of Southedge Works, Brighouse Road, Hipperholme.

Objectors to the Brookelands plan have registered concerns which include the impact on wildlife, impact on climate change, a need to Masterplan the whole development, design, privacy and a lack of low cost housing.

Ward councillor George Robinson (Con, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe) said concerns remain.

“A wildlife corridor runs through the site and I am concerned about the impact on Hipperholme’s habitat and environment.

“Congestion is also a huge issue for residents, and this application is in addition to the proposed 176 homes just over the road, and the mixed-use proposals at the former Crosslee site,” he said.

Air quality and traffic issues, which were considered in the earlier application the council had rejected but the inspectorate approved, have been deemed not material because they were considered in the earlier application.

Objectors to the Southedge Works site application argue the Brookelands and Crosslee sites should be treated as one site and voice concerns about highway safety, air pollution, traffic congestion, loss of green areas and and issue of contaminated land – planning officers say a condition if the application were to be granted would be submission of a report into that.

Planning officers are recommending councillors approve the Brookelands plan and be mindful to permit, subject to a legal agreement, the Southedge plans.

In April, Crosslee began consultation on proposals which could ultimately see a mix of homes including a retirement village, businesses, shops, a care home and a supermarket built on the old factory site.

The old factory buildings are now fully demolished and the 24,200 square metre brownfield site could be home to, among other things, a McCarthy and Stone retirement village and retail space including a supermarket, they said.