Why large-scale housing developments are failing to address critical issues - a personal view by HCS executive committee member Geoff Hughes

Lindley Moor from the cycle way showing the Rybrook Land Rover car sales premises on Lindley Moor, Huddersfield, with the housing behind

What I have seen evolve in Lindley Moor over the last two decades offers a preview of what we can expect in many other edge of town Huddersfield developments that are in the pipeline.
 
Take a closer look at recent Lindley Moor developments and you are well placed to consider the effect of applications for planning approval coming before Kirklees Council’s Strategic Planning Committee this week (28/04/21).
 
Many promises have been made about facilities to be provided across Lindley Moor over the years by the various developers who have bought, sold, bought and then built here. It’s a desirable area - people want to move here. Some of the housing is OK, but it is 100% could-be-anywhere bland design. The scale of commercial development by the M62 has grown steadily over the years and is best exemplified by the huge Rybrook Land Rover dealership and its vast area of hundreds of cars on prominent display.
 
Facilities? A couple of tiny play bits and a 200m hilltop cycle way that links two roads. Absolutely nothing else, despite promise after promise after promise. I’ve seen countless developer pictures and plans of shops, community centres, schools, surgeries – but none of these have been built.
 
There are very few trees across the developments as a whole and many are sickly or in poor condition. The only ‘green’ area (apart from the few sickly, snapped trees, which are around a clever flood prevention scheme that has worked) is a narrow strip of emerging tree-cover alongside the motorway and now officially ‘green belt’ on the Local Plan. It is very well used, not least by dog walkers.
 
There is one building in the green belt, the long-established Wappy Spring public house where locals and new inhabitants could walk and, despite the constant noise from the M62, sit and enjoy a drink and a rest. However, the pub is now proposed to be replaced by a small business park
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/more-revealed-huddersfield-nano-park-20424877
 
This week councillors will consider proposals for the village-scale development in Crosland Hill (Black Cat fireworks). This application - taken together with changes planned for other areas now zoned for housing development under the Local Plan – will impact the town for decades to come.
 
If approved, these developments will contribute significantly to growth in car-based out-of-town living. The consequences for ‘active travel’ and air and noise pollution in Huddersfield are not good.