FIVE Barnsley villages will ‘lose their identities’ after the council’s planning board approved plans for work to start on the town’s largest-ever development this week, according to a councillor who voted against the proposals.
The MU1 site is 122 hectares - the equivalent of more than 150 football pitches - and separates the villages of Higham, Gawber, Redbrook, Pogmoor and Barugh Green.
It has been the subject of a decade-long battle between developers - Strata Sterling Barnsley West - and residents campaigning against the proposals.
A special planning board meeting was held on Wednesday and saw councillors visit the site in the morning before discussing the proposals in the town hall in the afternoon.
A full planning application was put forward for a total of 216 homes being built on the site, while outline planning permission - meaning more detailed plans will have to be put forward at a later date - for 1,344 homes was also decided.
Brian Heathcote, who lives on St John’s Avenue, told the meeting that there has been a ‘complete lack of democracy’ over the plans.
In response, the developers stated that the plans had been subject to a huge consultation programme which has seen more than 2,800 letters sent to nearby residents - with planning officials stating that concerns had been responded to.
Garry Hildersley, head of planning at the council, recommended the proposals be approved by the councillors on the board.
He said: “This site is the largest allocation in the local plan.
“It is the largest residential site and one of the largest employment sites.”
After around 90 minutes of the plans being outlined, councillors had the chance to ask questions surrounding the application - and despite it being the town’s largest development, just three spoke.
Coun Ashley Peace admitted his disappointment regarding the lack of bungalows, while Coun Joe Hayward raised his concerns around gas protection methods.
Coun Chris Wray, whose ward is heavily impacted by the proposals, asked a number of questions and ultimately voted against the plans in vain as they were approved.
As were the plans for the employment site which will deliver over 1.2 milion square feet of employment floorspace for manufacturing, distribution and ancillary offices with car parking.
A total of £4.799m has been set aside through Section 106 contributions - monies set aside by developers for local amenities.
A new link road - which will be built on site - will cost around £8m and be completed within two-and-a-half years while a new 420-place primary school will become operational by 2029 at a cost of £11m.
Coun Wray told the Chronicle: “There’s a number of things that are better than when they originally started.
“We’ve worked extensively - even talking to developers to get the link road to go forward.
“I still think 1,500 houses is a lot and the people of Higham and Dodworth are going to be massively impacted.”
He also raised concerns around the Section 106 funding - with £823,000 of the money going towards a staggered junction at Lee Lane and Shaw Lane, miles away from the development.
But Mr Hildersley said that due to the size of the development, outlying areas of Barnsley will also be affected.
Coun Wray said: “There are some concerns that I feel the residents are going to be affected by.
“There’s £800,000 going over towards Lee Lane and Shaw Lane and I understand that a development of this size will affect other junctions.
“However when houses are going to cost £350,000 those streets won’t be affected - junctions 37 and 38 will be because I think it’s going to be a commuter hub.”
He also raised his concerns that the five villages surrounding the development will just be turned into one due to ‘urban sprawl’ - defined as the the uncontrolled outward expansion of urban areas, typically characterised by low-density housing, increased automobile dependence, and fragmented land use patterns.
“It’s massive.
“There’s going to be no such thing as Higham, Barugh Green, Redbrook, Pogmoor and Gawber - there’ll be a sign but that’s all.
“There’s five former villages that are just going to be conjoined onto something else.
“It’s urban sprawl - that’s he best way of looking at it.
“There are some gaps in there which might help to reduce the feeling but I don’t think that residents of Barugh Green and Higham will feel like that because it’s literally back to back.
“The main thing that will be important is the link road.
“It needs to be put in.
“We’ve already got issues if HGVs going down Higham Common Road.
“People are having near misses and there’s so many issues.
“That junction is already bad and it’ll be oversubscribed.
“We do need new houses but we need to make sure it’s the right amount.”
You may also be interested in reading: https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/article/32350/towns-potential-to-be-realised-thanks-to-critical-mu1-decision
