Bruntclife Road Bus Service Campaign

I have called for a meeting with Bus Chiefs to discuss residents’ concerns about bus services serving Bruntcliffe Road. The meeting follows a story in last week’s Morley Observer and Advertiser about the seven year wait residents have endured to improve bus services on the Bruntcliffe Road corridor.

I understand the frustrations of local residents who I have been working with for many years. Over the last few months I have been exploring ways that development money from the new Barratts housing site on Bruntcliffe Road might be used to improve this bus service. Officers from both Leeds City Council and Metro have been looking at the practicability of this approach.

I have met with residents and independent transport consultants over the last year to agree a plan to resolve the lack of bus services.

Presently we have buses covering Bruntcliffe Lane and Scotchman Lane but the bus service along Bruntcliffe Road is inadequate for the needs of the growing community of residents, many of them older or disabled, who live on Bruntcliffe Road. I am hoping this new and imaginative approach might resolve this problem.

Developers of new homes are obliged to provide development funds to improve public transport under legal agreements. Such funds can be used to improve bus stops and bus shelters but can also be used to directly improve bus services.

I have requested a meeting early in September to try and get this problem resolved. The previous bus operator has not delivered the service to an acceptable standard and I hope, with this additional funding, real progress can be made and residents won’t be waiting a further 7 years for the improvements they deserve!

Battling with Persimmons again!

Another Greenfield site under threat?

We are heading for a further battle with Persimmons the house builder following news of a new housing application from the developer proposed for New Village Way in Churwell. Persimmons was recently granted planning permission for a further 200 homes on a Greenfield site off Albert Drive in Morley.

We held a public meeting in April with residents and asked them to back our campaign to oppose development on this Churwell Greenfield site. We got overwhelming support from residents and we promised we would gear up the campaign to oppose this proposal if a formal application was made.

Persimmons have put in planning application for 55 houses on the Greenfield site with access off New Village Way – a road which already serves over 330 homes on the estate.

Leeds City Councils Planning rules say that a single road should not serve an estate of more than 300 houses. If this proposal goes ahead it will serve over 380 houses overloading the road and bringing serious highways and safety problems. As we all know – local schools are full and the local health centre can barely cope with the people presently registered in the area. Adding more strain to these services and bringing more traffic on to Churwell Hill is utter madness!

We have requested that the application is considered by Plans Panel and Churwells Town Councillors are also backing the campaign opposing development.

Dartmouth Park Playground to be improved

Morley Borough Independent Councillors have lined up a third playground to be refurbished following our successful campaigns to find the money to improve playgrounds at Churwell Park and Magpie Lane. The third playground, at Dartmouth Park, is to become part of the improvement plan and we are to meet Parks Officers at Leeds City Council to agree a delivery programme.

We have identified the money needed to improve the playground in Dartmouth Park. The children’s play area is now looking rather dated and we want to bring it up to date. We will be consulting widely with local residents – especially children and young people – to make sure we come up with a design that they want.

The finance for the scheme is to come from a developer contribution which is a legal obligation developers have to pay to improve local parks if they are building new homes in the area. The contribution for the improvement plan is coming from the Barratts development on Bruntcliffe Road.

It is an exciting time for playgrounds across the wider Morley area. Both Churwell Park and Magpie Lane playground improvement plans have gone out to consultation with the aim of delivering the improvements by the end of the year. It is the community that is driving forward with new ideas for our playgrounds and we are keen to adopt their proposals.

The Dartmouth Park Playground plan should go out to consultation over the next six weeks and we are hoping to see the work completed by Spring 2016.