Object
Draft Bradford District Local Plan - Preferred Options (Regulation 18) February 2021
Representation ID: 28466
Received: 24/03/2021
Respondent: Lovell Homes
Agent: PB Planning
Objection to Site Ref. NW/033 being rejected as a housing allocation within the Preferred Options Local Plan.
The site can make a significant contribution to the provision of much needed housing opportunities in the District.
We consider that additional housing sites will need to be released in order to meet the District’s minimum housing needs and that this uplift should be distributed to the District’s most sustainable locations. Which include the Allerton area of the Regional City of Bradford.
The site can deliver a comprehensive development of market and affordable housing alongside a number of community benefits to meet the needs and aspirations of the local area. Lovell Homes are proposing to deliver 40% affordable housing at the site. This far exceeds that required by the Preferred Options Local Plan.
The site will deliver a substantial 3.87ha of greenspace.
A landscape-led development is proposed which responds to the existing landform, vegetative features, and topography.
The proposals will create a ‘green wedge’ of landscape and enhance the existing woodland habitat on the site’s northern boundary. The retention of the existing woodland boundary offers the ability to provide an improved development edge and a soft transition with the reservoirs and existing woodland located to the north of the site, creating a defensible Green Belt boundary in perpetuity in this area of the City.
The opportunity to deliver biodiversity enhancements within the substantial areas of open space, including green corridors which connect the site’s existing areas of biodiversity value with new pocket greenspaces.
The development proposals are situated in a suitable and highly sustainable location in respect of existing settlement form and there are no technical or environmental (built and natural) constraints that would preclude the development of the site.
Lovell’s development proposals represent a sequentially preferable development opportunity to a number of other potential green belt releases being considered by the Council. There are very few other potential housing allocations that benefit from the defensible boundaries and sustainability credentials of the Allerton Road, Bradford site.