The council are planning on building up to 4000 homes which could see areas of the bridleways and woods near Dewsbury golf course flattened, this would be a huge shame as this area is a bit of a gem for bridleways
There's links to the inevitable petition and facebook group on this site: http://www.horsesnothouses.com/
Signed - my local patch and not happy !
Signed
Signed and past on cheers.
Been far too long since I've ridden over that way but signed as well. Some great riding around Mirfield.
what , the bastards .. i'd just posted about an angry little golfer on the cause this morning on another thread, its a quality local ride,..
Can't get my head around where the plans are for. Assume between golf course and the Ship Inn?
Will need to get my map out tonight and have a proper look.
Shame if gets the go ahead, would loose some nice routes but, we need houses.
Mirfield resident.
I wonder if this ties in with the proposed "leisure" development round Castle Hill? As in, "we've built that for you over there now look away while we bulldoze all this lovely land"?
Signed 👿
if they are building around sands lane, (ie the road between the fishing ponds behind the ship in upto the golf club, then i wouldnt want to live their, its always wet and boggy, so damp and flodding could be a real issue,
its a quality ride in summer, but last weekend i kept getting bogged down half way upto my front hub, horse hoof prints and deep mud are a challenge
ps. signed and FB shared
Ah, think i've got it in my minds eye. Nice bit of wood there with some sweet jumps. Also where i get all my blackberries.
It would also take out Jordan wood singletrack and the track down to Ravensthorpe school ! Basically everything east of the loop round the golf course up to the track to Thornhill Edge.
@sandwicheater @RobinL its a big area, its got to be a few hundred metres alongside the railway track to hit the bridge and then another few hundred metres to the road corner just up from the ravesnthorpe train station. and then all up that hillside including the woods with the jumps and bridleway upto a farm and up and over to briestfield..
4,000 houses up their, not sure where the excess traffic, kids and such like will use the roads, schools, doctors surgeries hospitals and lack of A&E..
4000 houses. Four THOUSAND! Thats a LOT of new houses and IIRC, all the roads around that side of the river are really narrow and prone to flooding?
The genius who came up with this idea must be associated with the cretin who thought building stuff in the Calder Valley just downstream of Sowerby Bridge is a good idea. Or as many suspect in that case, someone got one hell of a back-hander to allow it through.
Signed
As a local Huddser I've signed it.
4000 houses round there is ridiculous, a little incomprehensible to be honest. Dont they have to 'honour' existing rights of way though, so although a lot of the other riding will be lost the bridleways need to remain?
Jeez - the traffic along the A644 is bad enough already. Hopton Woods and that bit further on my earliest MTB stomping ground too. Was gutted the other year when I found out that the good bit of Middleton woods was fenced off into a "nature" reserve too.
They seem to be building a housing estate, or at least preparing to, further up between brighouse and Sowerby Bridge.. Good luck getting insurance, future residents!
A lot of my family live round there and are against it, because it's near their houses. But as a young person hoping to buy a first house in the next five years I can't sign this. There's a bigger picture than some bridleways and some woods on the fringes of a town. While I'd rather stuff was built on brownfield you'll only ever get such a big development on a site like this and hopefully it might mean there's enough houses for the future population of Mirfield and help to bring prices in the area a little into line with reality.
Building more houses has done nothing to curb house prices I'm afraid. Maybe once the whole bloody country is one big bloody identikit housing estate with one big eff off motorway through the middle things will settle down, but then what will we prop the economy up with.......
Building more houses won't bring down house prices. People just buy them up as BTLs then 'I'm only charging market rates' rent them out to those who can't afford a deposit for a house purchase.
Just look at all the flats going up in Manchester over the last 10yrs. They aren't cheap. Crackers. Signed.
Agreed that more houses are needed in the area, and they are more of a priority than some fields used by grazing horses, or the odd walker/cyclist. And this is from someone who rides around the area (I've even got a ride planned there tomorrow). A significant amount of houses are required now, and in the future to meet our requirements along with future generations!
Also, this site is only 'identified' in the Kirklees local plan, and outline planning permission has not actually been sought. The reality is that the asessment and planning process would take several years alone (and it would likley , and a development of this size would then take several years to build, so get riding!
a development of this size would then take several years to build
Not the way they build houses these days it won't! 🙂
I used to work for Kirklees Council and fed into the LDF which has formed the basis of the planning departments current plans. I'm quite happy to sign this petition as i don't agree with the decisions that were formed and the processes they used to reach them.
There's a lot of brownfield sites more suitable to be built upon, but are less desirable for developers to invest in. The brownfields require re-designation, have to be cleared and re-mediated, which can be very costly depending on the processes taking place there in the past.
There's also a mindset that businesses may want to come in and redevelop the brownfield sites. That's unlikely though as there's plenty of industrial units and land available already in Kirklees.
Unfortunately the approach has been to earmark every big bit of open land as potential for development in the hope that one or two of them will get through planning challenges. Mostly in North Kirklees as well
Anyone remember Call me Dave's first campaign when he banged on about protecting the environment and being the greenest government ever?*
*(I'm very aware that the LDF was implemented under Labour, but the blues have been in power for more than enough time to implement a different planning mindset)
Is there really a need for 4000 houses outside of Mirfield? It's a small place with few amenities.
Yes it could grow to cater for over time but the fact is there are tons of houses on rightmove that have been for sale for ages around Huddersfield areas.
If there was a housing shortage that we're led to believe there is then rightmove would be sparse.
Redevelop more existing sites/run down mills and so forth than encroaching on the small bits of greenery between villages.
4000 houses seems overkill at present, plenty of houses for sale at all values. Although many have been on for ever as they are overpriced.
If the government really wanted to solve the issue, they need to put punitive tax on buy to let mortgages and rental income and stop the current trend of investing in property. Houses should be a home not a quick profit