Labour betrayal in Morley

Despite promises made in several local and national elections the Labour Party in Morley has reverted back to type and agreed 300 housing units on Morley greenfield sites at Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe Road. The Labour dominated Plans Panel agreed both applications - despite strong representations from campaigning local residents - with Labour using its majority to ram through the proposals which have no local support.

But perhaps we should not be too surprised at Labours duplicity. It smacks of their approach to Morley when they were last in power at Leeds City Council with 1000s of houses dumped onto Morley's infrastructure which could barely cope. Now they are back to inflict more pain and this time have the support of Labour MP Ed Balls who backs house building at this level. Indeed Mr Balls failed to lodge an objection to either of these housing applications preferring to stay quiet about housing figures he agreed in the last Labour Government in the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which dictated wholly unrealistic and unachievable housing figures across Leeds of over 3200 houses each year for the next 15 years! Unsurprisingly these are very similar figures to those contained in Labours LDF proposals presently doing the rounds at Leeds City Council.

The agreement of 300 additional houses brings at least an additional 600 vehicles onto Morley's already busy roads. Children's Services confirmed that Morley Schools were already full but this was ignored by the Labourites who have added an additional 60 primary school children to Morley's schools waiting list with nowhere to put them. If we add in over 22,000 planning permisions - most on brownfield sites already agreed across Leeds by Leeds City Council its clear that no Morley greenfield needs to be developed - at the present rate of new build - for over decade.

What do we make of this further Labour betrayal of Morley. It is clear that the Labour Group are happy to sacrifice Morley's solitary Labour Councillor Neil Dawson over this greenfield assault. Labours vote this year went backwards and his fragile majority has been overturned. Its also safe to assume that they believe Ed Balls is Teflon coated and this "Friend of the Developer" tag Labour now has will not stick to him. I think that's unrealistic. Labour at both national and local levels are prepared to sell Morley's greenfield and greenbelt sites out to Developers as the money associated with such Development can be re-cycled to Labour areas miles away from such overwhelming housing development in Morley.

I pay tribute to the campaigners such as Morley Against Reckless Construction (MARC) especially Dave Paul and Brian and Christine Guy who have run brilliant campaigns against the Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe Road Developments. They will feel disillusioned and devastated that the views of local people have been entirely ignored by Labour Councillors who find such views irrelevant and are prepared to rip up any greenfield sites as long as they are not in areas they represent. But campaigners should not be downbeat. We have lost the opening skirmish but not the Morley Greenfield War. We must continue to oppose Labours crazy LDF policy which will bring over 8000 housing units to Morley's greenfield sites if agreed. We will explore the options to refer both applications to the Secretary of State and ask him to call them in as neither application supports sustainable development - the bedrock of the Governments flagship National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Labours LDF goes to public examination next years. Its our job to get it dumped and to continue with our campaign to protect other Morley greenfield sites on Labours Development hit list!