Battling with Bookies and Developers



Owlers Farm



Morley Borough Independent Councillors have backed their colleagues on Morley Town Council who threw out planning applications from bookies William Hills and Developer Persimmons Homes at its planning meeting last Tuesday.

The Planning Committee refused an application for William Hills at a new site on Morrison’s precinct as it breached planning rules for Town Centres. The Persimmon Homes application was refused because of problems with access to the site and its lack of sustainability.

Cllr Shirley Varley – who attended the meeting said “We are fully behind our colleagues on the Town Council with these two planning refusals. We have significant concerns about the William Hills application which would be at a location that is used by many schoolchildren on their way to school. We believe this location is not appropriate for a bookies and will encourage more people to get into debt. We were particularly concerned that rumours are circulating that the shop will run mainly slot machines which often have a negative impact on the Town Centres.”

Over 20 local residents from adjacent to the proposed Owlers Farm Housing Development proposal attended the meeting to hear councillors unanimously oppose the application.

Cllr Judith Elliott said “We were delighted that residents came out to show their opposition to this proposal. We are aiming to get hundreds of objections to his proposal as local schools and health centres are full and local roads already congested. We are sending a clear message to Developers and Leeds City Council that Morley is full and cannot take this overwhelming level of development.”

Councillors have referred both decisions through to be taken by Leeds City Councils Planning Committee rather than delegating the applications to planners and site visits will also be undertaken before any final decisions are taken. Recently released figures show that Morley’s primary and secondary schools will be full by 2016 while also confirming planning permission had also been granted for over 20,000 housing units on mainly Brownfield sites across the Leeds City Council area.