Gleeson tipped for Barnsley go-ahead
Reserved matters consent is recommended for 221 homes at Smithies, more than five years after outline plans were approved.
The initial proposals were signed off in December 2018, with a decision notice issued in June 2019, following which the process of remediation works on former colliery land started.
The applicant is working with planner Peacock + Smith, with the professional team also including PRA Architecture, Tetra Tech, Rosetta Landscape Design, Rodgers Leask, Optima and Applied Ecological Services.
Gleeson Regeneration is to deliver the development. According to the planning documentation, which dates from 2022, it is working on behalf of its partnership with Harworth and the Ellis family.
Gleeson’s site is 19 acres, and is located west of the A61 Wakefield Road, between New Lodge, Athersley South and Smithies, close to a primary school and Stagecoach bus depot in a largely residential area. The outline approval covers up to 232 homes.
The 221 dwellings would be made up of 47 two-bedroom homes (21%)), 124 three-bed homes (56%)) and 50 four-bed homes (23%). Although the volume of three-bed homes is above the 41% recommended in the council’s strategic housing market assessment, it is well below the 67% originally proposed.
With remediation now taken care of, more recently, there has been negotiation over the issue of affordable homes, with Gleeson’s representative JLL contending that the level of affordable homes required would make the scheme unviable.
According to local policy, 10% of homes in a scheme of this size should be classed as affordable. At three points since April 2022, JLL has submitted viability reports stating that the development cannot be delivered at that amount. CPV has advised the council on the matter, reviewing JLL’s work on each of the occasions concerned.
The to-and-fro over affordability has led to a position of compromise, with CPV and its associated cost consultant deciding this spring that the site could still accommodate the full financial contributions of £1.74m, but the affordable housing provision would have to be reduced to six homes, or just 2.7% of the site’s total.
Officers noted that “it is disappointing that the full affordable housing provision of 10% cannot be provided” but described it as encouraging that the scheme can still provide full financial provisions for off-site formal recreation, education and heritage.
The proposal is due to be considered at Barnsley’s planning meeting on Tuesday 22 October. All planning documents can be viewed on the council’s planning portal, reference 2022/0633.
