Gildersome Industrial Estate Campaign and the formation of MARC

I was at a meeting at Gildersome Meeting Hall last night to discuss proposls for a large scale industrial estate on greenland adjacent to Asquith Avenue and Gelderd Road. This green space, which presently operates as a green corridor between Gildersome Village and Morley, is under threat of widescale industrial development.

Over 100 resdeints attended to raise their concerns at the meeting chaired well by my collegue Cllr Tom Leadley. Officers from the Council also attended to answer question on Planning, Highways and Drainage issues.

Gildersome residents clearly oppose this development and raised legitimate concerns about drainage, highways impact at already congested roads around the site and its impact on local residents who live adjacent to the site.

It is clear that residents concerns are genuine and that the debate about the sustainability of this site is an important one being held. At the point where many local industrial estates, such as Treefields at Gildersome and Howley Park in Morley, are not full is there demonstrable need for additional industrial development?

The Highways Agency has presently a holding objection to the application as it wants assurances that the impact of this proposal added to proposals for a hotel at Gildersome Roundabout on the Rowntree site as well as Barratts proposals for 200 homes on Bruntcliffe Road wont overwhelm the local road network. Many residents believe that the impact of all three proposals make the site unsustainable and congestion and pollution levels will rise. I expect to see several hundred objections to this planning application.

Which brings me nicely to the formation last week of the new campaign group MARC - Morley Against Reckless Construction. This group has been formed as an umbrella organisation to bring together groups such as the Stop McDonald's at Tingley along with campaigners against housing proposals at Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe Road. The aim is to bring all such groups together to support each other campaigns and to speak as a unified voice on matters such as the LDF presently doing the rounds. The new chairman Dave Paul attended last nights meeting to pledge the groups support.

Its clear that the campaign against Inappropriate Development across Morley keeps building momentum!