Plans put forward for Headingley residential scheme

A planning application to bring forward a residential development in Weetwood, Headingley has been submitted to Leeds City Council.

The outline planning application by Keyland Developments seeks to transform a vacant two acre site at Weetwood Crescent, currently an unused part of Yorkshire Water’s Headingley Water Treatment Works.

The site is within an existing residential location with a number of houses running along the northern and eastern boundaries, including Weetwood Manor, a listed three storey Gothic style house comprising rental apartments, the Weetwood Court residential estate and Bardon Hall Gardens, a relatively new housing development. To the south of the site are sports fields.

Keyland has prepared an indicative site layout of five detached homes designed by Edward Architecture.

Luke Axe, planning manager at Keyland Developments, said: “We have worked closely with the local community and our design team to devise a well-considered masterplan for this well-connected site in the residential suburb of Weetwood.

“The five detached homes will meet a need in the local housing market and make the best use of a site which is ideally suited to the provision of new homes. As with so many former Yorkshire Water sites, it has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the locality and we are looking forward to the feedback on our application.”

However, Mark Wilson of Design Office Architectural said: “The current application reveals that Keyland began talking with the local planning authority in November 2015. Consultation with residents commenced 16 months later (March 2017) when we were presented with their development proposals.

“The local community therefore refutes any claim to have worked with the developer. The residents will robustly resist the applicant’s proposals to remove an entire wood that provides unique and rare biodiversity that includes a disparate range of wild birds and Bats and even Roe Deer.

“There is no public access to this area as it resides wholly within the Yorkshire Water site. This only adds to the sustainable attraction to a more timid range of fauna that would otherwise stay away. The corollary of which is a much enhanced visual amenity and a natural feature that makes the locality special, the loss of which, for the gain of a mere five 5-bed houses, would be catastrophic over the long term.

“There is no doubt that Leeds needs new places to live, but the net gain of five luxury homes fails the price comparison test against the loss of such unique green infrastructure forever.”