Tingley LDF meeting

Over 7000 new homes for Morley?

I attended a good public meeting in Tingley last Monday arranged by local residents concerned about development of Greenfield sites off Westerton Road. Residents packed the British Oak in Tingley to raise their concerns about the impact on local schools, health centres and roads. They confirmed that local parents had received a letter from their local primary school who has confirmed that they school was full and there was no potential for expansion.


Residents were rightly fired up about this proposal and were critical of Ardsley and Robin Hood Labour councillors who had not involved the community on these issues. Readers will realise that the site specific document - which props up Labours LDF plan for 74,000 houses across Leeds - confirms where the housing will go.

It is clear that Labour - including our very own solitary Labour councillor Neil Dawson - backs these unrealistic and unsustainable proposals for over 7000 new homes across Morley increasing the size of Morley of about 50%!  It is equally as clear that local communities oppose them with the same passion!

We continue with our battle against the LDF and take it to the full City Council meeting on Monday. Our job is to unite communities across the wider Morley area in our campaign against the LDF.

No surrender!

Public Meeting a success!

Last Tuesday's meeting last Tuesday was a success with over 150 people attending the event. Speakers included our very own Cllr Tom Leadley - Morleys planning guru - along with Mark

Eastwood from Chidswell Action Group and Cllr David Blackburn - Green Party Councilor from Wortley.

All the speakers were critical of the recently published LDF site specific document which is out for consultation as they believe the proposal by Labour Leeds for over 7000 houses across the wider Morley area is unsustainable and will overwhelm local schools, roads and health centres.

A vote was taken at end of the meeting which overwhelmingly supported our campaign against Labour Leeds LDF proposals with the only dissenting voice coming from Labours solitary City Councillor Neil Dawson who refused to back the campaign for a second time.

As Kirklees LDF spirals into flames there is a confidence in communities that Labours crazy LDF proposals can be defeated.

The battle continues!

Public Meeting Tuesday 18th June at 7pm Morley Town Hall

LDF plan exposed by the Morley Ob

You may remember our campaign to oppose the plans from Leeds City Council for over 7000 new houses for the wider Morley area. We opposed this proposal as we believe local roads cannot take the additional traffic generated, local schools are full and cannot take additional pupils, local health centres would not be able to cope and we would loose large numbers of Greenfield sites across the wider Morley area.

We also opposed this plan as Leeds City Council has already granted planning permission for 22,000 new houses on mainly brownfield sites across the Leeds City Council area. Fewer than 2000 new homes were built over the last year across Leeds and we see no reason for releasing Morley Greenfield sites until all of these present planning permissions are used up.

Labour Leeds City Council has agreed a massive 74,000 new homes in their LDF plan. We were the only political group on the council to oppose this plan. Labours new site specific document shows the proposed location for the 7,000 + new houses Labour Leeds City Council has imposed on Morley – which includes Greenfield sites in Morley, Drighlington, Gildersome and particularly East and West Ardsley.

We want residents to attend our public meeting on Tuesday 18th June at 7pm at Morley Town Hall so we can hear their views on these plans.

I hope as many residents as possible will be able to attend.

Supermarket Levy - good for Morley?

Morley Town Centre

A proposal from the group Local Works is one we are supporting in Morley. Their idea is to use the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 to levy an additional charge on local large businesses and use that money to expand the rate relief to smaller businesses across town centres.

Many people put the demise of local town centres down to the growth of supermarkets. Indeed many traders in Batley argue that the introduction of a mega Tesco’s has left the town centre there stagnating. In Morley - although Morrison’s are quite dominant - we have a town centre which has many independent operators and is doing well in competition with its local rivals. This is down to the breadth of businesses operating cross the town centre, a decent market and a supportive Chamber of Trade and Town Centre Management Board.

It seems fair to me that the Supermarkets - who are making large profits even in these difficult times - ought to provide some support to smaller traders who are struggling to pay their business rates. This redistributive proposal provided the reliable finance to continue to support thriving town centres.

Let’s hope the City Council uses its powers to introduce such a levy when it is given the opportunity!