Tingley McDonalds and a Public Inquiry





Residents and Councillors worked together to block Tingley McDonalds Take-away Plan

  Morley Borough Independent Councillors have pledged to continue to support the community campaign opposing the plan for a McDonalds take-away at Tingley. The pledge follows confirmation that the recent refusal of planning permission will be considered at a Public Inquiry.

Cllr Judith Elliott says this application will go to a full Public Inquiry which will consider the refusal decision. This will be similar to last year’s Public Inquiry that looked at Cottingley Springs and we will be adopting a similar approach.

At the Public Inquiry for Cottingley Springs we joined with residents as a Rule 6 party, a special designation agreed by the Planning Inspectorate. This gave the group the right to cross examine the proposers of the application and provide evidence directly to the Planning Inspector.

We will be meeting with the Tingley McDonalds Group and Tingley residents shortly to propose this approach as the way forward. It is important that we continue to be unified and we work closely together to defeat McDonalds at this appeal.

Cash back on Cottingley Springs?

I have lodged a formal complaint with the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan, to try to get local residents and community groups a refund of the money they had to pay out following their successful campaign to prevent the expansion of Cottingley Springs Traveller site. The controversial application was refused by a Planning Inspector in March following a Public Inquiry.

Leeds City Council wasted over £70,000 of Taxpayers money with this ill-judged application to expand Cottingley Springs Travellers site. This application breached the Councils own planning policies and the Planning Inspector was unequivocal in rejecting Leeds City Councils claims that land it owned in East and South Leeds was not appropriate for smaller Traveller sites. Leeds City Council paid over £10,000 to employ a barrister to support this ill-founded application and residents and community groups had to raise their own funds to get legal advice before the Public Inquiry.Residents and local community groups had to raise over £4000 to get Legal Advice on the planning application.

It was very much a David and Goliath contest at the Public Inquiry with Leeds City Council employing an expensive barrister to try and bulldoze through their application. We worked closely with local residents and community groups and the campaign was successful despite the odds.

My complaint has been lodged with Leeds City Councils Chief Executive Tom Riordan. The complaint covers breach of council policy and the cost to compensate local residents who helped to finance the campaign.

I have little faith that the City Council will refund residents for this entirely inappropriate planning application. We need to go through the complaints process before the matter is passed to the Local Government Ombudsman. If the Ombudsman does agree with me that the Council is guilty of maladministration then a compensation award can be made. Perhaps then residents will be refunded their hard earned cash.

Churwell New Village Public Meeting

Churwell Greenfields again under threat

Local residents filled a public meeting at Stanhope Hall in Churwell last Wednesday to discuss controversial plans by Persimmon Homes to bring over 50 houses to a Greenfield site adjacent to Churwell New Village. The meeting, called by local MBI Councillors, agreed to support a campaign to oppose the application because of Highways and Infrastructure concerns.

It was clear from the residents who attended the meeting that they opposed this proposal from Persimmon. They have major concerns about the capacity of the single spine road that serves the estate to take an additional 50 plus homes and over 100 additional car movements. They are also concerned that local schools and health centres can’t cope with the present demand on them from residents already living in the area and with the impact additional traffic will have on Churwell Hill.

The proposal breaches present planning rules that state that a single spine road serving an estate should not exceed 300 homes. The proposal, if agreed, would mean the single road serving almost 400 homes.

Cllr Bob Gettings tells me “We were asked by residents to launch a campaign to oppose this application should a formal planning application materialise. These additional houses cannot form sustainable development and - along with other sustainability issues – means local councillors will be working with residents to prevent the loss of this valuable Greenfield site.”

Drighlington Meeting Hall Take-Over a step closer!

Drighlington Meeting Hall

A radical plan for the takeover of a local community centre is a step closer following a meeting between community campaigners and councillors last week.

The proposal could see Drighlington Rugby Club take over running the Meeting Hall in Drighlington and taking full control of the building from Leeds City Council later in the year.

This is a fabulous scheme which will deliver the future of the Meeting Hall which is under threat from Council cut backs. The Club have talked to local organisations including Drighlington Parish Council and Community Centre User Groups who all fully support this proposal.

The plan would see the building handed over to the local community group to run. The Group would look to extend the building and run it more efficiently than Leeds City Council.

My colleague Cllr Bob Gettings says the Rugby Club has a long record of supporting local young people. He also says this is an excellent proposal of theirs and will guarantee the long term sustainability of the Community Centre and encourage better community use of this underused building.

It has taken a long time to reach this point but this is a good news story.

The proposal is proposed to go to Leeds City Councils Executive Committee for a decision in June with the aim of the takeover being implemented by the end of the year.

White Rose Jobs Plan

I have welcomed the news that the planning application to bring an IMAX cinema to the White Rose Centre in Morley has been successful. The proposal – which was agreed at a Leeds City Councils Planning Committee – will bring a multi-screen cinema and additional restaurants to the popular shopping centre.

We supported this planning proposal as it will bring additional employment opportunities to Morley residents. We have worked well with the White Rose Centre before on earlier expansion proposals and they have signed up to legal agreements which offer training, apprenticeships and jobs to local residents. A similar agreement on this new planning application could mean hundreds of jobs coming the way of Morley residents.

Planning applications can contain a section 106 legal agreement where Developers agree to use local contractors to provide materials and services as well as guaranteeing that local residents will be offered the jobs generated by the development.

We gave our full support to this application and I am delighted it has been approved. We need to do all we can to offer jobs, apprenticeships and training to as many local residents as we can. This is an election pledge we have delivered on in the past and will continue to deliver on in the future!

Cottingley Springs - a failed political stitch up!

Cottingley Springs Expansion - a political stitch-up!

I have made a formal request to investigate the failure of Leeds City Council to get planning permission for their expansion of Cottingley Springs Travellers site and revelations that the failed venture has cost local taxpayers over £70,000.

I have also formally requested a full breakdown of the cost to local taxpayers of this failure by Leeds City Council to obtain planning permission for their expansion plan at Cottingley Springs and that Scrutiny Board fully investigates the circumstances around this failure as I believe that the whole application was an attempt to use the planning process and public funds to deliver a political stitch-up. This failure has cost local taxpayers dearly.

The Planning Inspector who examined the Planning Application at a Public Inquiry last year found that the council had failed on numerous planning grounds. The Inspector also criticised the Councils regeneration policies which had been used to prevent the provision of smaller family Traveller sites across large areas of Leeds City Council regeneration zone to the South and East of the City.

It was clear from the Planning Inspectors decision that she believed Leeds City Council has breached its own planning and regeneration policies and expanding Cottingley Springs would leave the Traveller community more isolated. Smaller family sites across Leeds are the answer to unauthorised Travellers encampments and the operation of a deliberate Traveller exclusion policy by Leeds City Council needs to be full investigated.

My view is that Labour Councillors on Leeds City Council were keen to avoid providing Travellers sites in their areas preferring to expand a site that had no Labour Councillors representing the area. It was nothing more than a political stich-up!

I made his requests at last Wednesday Full City Council Meeting and will be seeking advice on taking legal action against Leeds City Councils failings after the Easter break.

This waste of thousands of pounds of taxpayer’s money on a politicised planning application is unacceptable in these difficult financial times and the matter needs to be investigated thoroughly.

McDonalds appeal again - and we are still not lovin' it!

White Bear at Tingley

Multinational company McDonalds have been accused of attempting to bully local residents in Tingley following confirmation that they are to appeal against the refusal of planning permission on the White Bear Pub site for a second time. The claim comes from my colleague and local resident and Town Councillor Wyn Kidger.

Wyn says she is disappointed that yet again McDonalds have launched a further appeal against their planning application for a fast food take-away which was refused last September. It seems McDonalds are hoping to grind down local opposition and bully them into submission.

The controversial application has been refused by Leeds City Council on 4 separate occasions and an appeal against refusal was also rejected last year.

Wyn tells me residents are weary with having to continuously battle with this rich and powerful multi-national company to prevent this fast food take-away being opened on their doorsteps. The local community has done an excellent job but Councillors are prepared to step up and take on the campaigning role at appeal if that is what residents want. If the appeal goes to a public inquiry then we will represent residents as we did at the Cottingley Springs public inquiry which we won.

We are now waiting for more details on the nature of the Planning Appeal before we again have to battle this giant. But - as we saw at Cottingley Springs – David can slay the Goliath and we expect a victory for local people again!