Leeds panel to mull 27-storey tower, Pudsey homes

More than 80 council homes are proposed for a former school in Pudsey, while Drum Property Group wants to bring nearly 400 apartments to Holbeck’s Evolution House plot.

The £22m Hough Top council homes scheme will be backed with West Yorkshire Combined Authority brownfield fund support, and will see 55 houses and 27 apartments in a sustainability-led project on a former high school site in Pudsey.

Watson Batty is the architect and nineteen47 the planner. The application will not be determined at this stage: members are merely asked to comment on key issues as the project advances.

At its 7 March meeting, Leeds City Council’s south and west plans panel will also hear a pre-application presentation, which will help inform plans before consent is sought for one of the city’s tallest buildings.

Drum Property Group wants to deliver the project next the Cartwright House site, for which Citylife secured consent in autumn 2023 for a 30-storey, 345-apartment tower as the second part of its Springwell Gardens scheme.

The Evolution House site is a wedge-shaped parcel currently occupied by a two-storey office block with associated surface car parking.

The site is located in the middle of Springwell Road within the part of the Holbeck Neighbourhood Plan north of the viaduct.

Planning officers describe this as an  area of transition just outside the boundary of the designated city centre, the boundary of which aligns with the railway line to the north-east; and physically separated from the main local centre of Holbeck by the viaduct, giving it a more industrial character.

As proposed by the developer, 50% of the flats would be one-bedroom, 39% two-bedroom and 11% three-bedroom. Commercial space is proposed at ground floor. Cycle storage is proposed for 60% of homes, with just 14 car parking spaces.

According to the officers’ report, the principle of a tall building in this area is accepted: already present is the 16-storey residential development on the corner of Springwell Road and Whitehall Road, with the second Springwell building set to come in at 30 floors. However, it is also noted that wind testing is yet to take place for the new proposal.

In seeking to guide the applicant, members are asked four key questions: whether they support the principle of development, and whether the size and scale; open space provision and parking provision are each acceptable.