Owlers Farm campaign begins!

MBI Flyer opposing Owler Farm Development

Morley Borough Independent Councillors have commenced their campaign to prevent development on a greenfield site at Owlers Farm off Wide Lane in Morley. The large greenfield site has been proposed for housing development by Persimmons and local residents have raised their outrage about the application. Its our job to oppose it as fully as we can and a flyer will shortly be circulating encouraging residents to formally lodge objections to the proposal.

Readers of this blog will know that Morley Primary and Secondary Schools will be full by 2016 with children already living in Morley. The additional children this application will generate have nowhere to go to school if planning permission is granted. If we add to this the congestion on Wide Lane, the poor drainage and flooding record at this location and the inability of other infrastructure services - such as local health centres - to cope with this level of development then it is clearly an unsustainable site and contrary to the Governments new NPPF document.

Labour already seem to be throwing in the white flag and don't appear to want to battle with the Developers on this application. This is perhaps no surprise as local Labour Councillors - including Morley's only Labour City Councillor Neil Dawson - voted for the LDF and its targets of 7,000+ houses across Morley which can only be accommodated by ripping up our greenfield sites.

The need to rip up Morley Greenfield sites is questionable as Leeds City Council has already granted planning permission for over 21,000 housing units - mainly on brownfield sites - which have not yet been built. At an annual completion rate of less than 2000 units a year there is already enough planning permissions to cover present housing demand for over 10 years without disturbing a single blade of grass on any Morley greenfield site.

It will be interesting to see if Labour look both ways on this - voting for it at Leeds City Council while claiming to oppose it locally. We will see if Labour again capitulates to the Developers.

What this space!