The controversial plans for a sports hall with community and prayer rooms on the former Ice Pak site on Barkly Road in Beeston will go before a Council Plans Panel next week with a recommendation to refuse planning permission.
The plans brought forward by local charity Aspiring Communities have raised a lot of debate in Beeston with a campaign called Save Our Beeston set up to oppose the development.
The South & West Plans Panel will consider the application at its meeting on Thursday 6 August 2015 at 1:30pm at the Civic Hall. A report to the panel from the Chief Planning Officer recommends the Councillors refuse permission:
The proposal due to its size, floor space and the range of uses proposed, within multi-purpose rooms has the capacity and potential to accommodate large numbers of people on a regular basis, and to generate significant levels of traffic and parking demand as a result. The amount of off-street parking proposed within the site is not considered sufficient to cater for this capacity and the range of uses, and the proposed basement level of parking is unlikely to be used in reality bymany of the visitors frequenting the premises for short stay prayer visits. It is also not considered that any impacts in this respect could be adequately controlled by conditions that would meet the tests in the NPPF. It is therefore considered that the proposed development would be likely to cause additional on-street parking on nearby streets, obstructing accesses and visibility at junctions, and restricting the two-way flow of traffic on some streets, to the detriment of highway and pedestrian safety. The development is therefore considered to be contrary to policies GP5, T2 and T24 of the Leeds Core Strategy and the guidance in the NPPF and the NPPG.
The additional levels of traffic and on-street parking associated with the development would result in a significant increase in disruption and inconvenience to local residents on a regular basis, including the obstruction of junctions and local roads. The cumulative effect of this, along with the impacts of the actual excavation and construction works required to form the basement level of parking which would include high levels of noise, dust, vibrations and HGV vehicles movements is considered to have a significant adverse impact on the living conditions on residents living around the site, contrary to policies GP5 and BD5 of the Leeds Core Strategy and the guidance in the NPPF.
You can read the full report here: http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s135203/2%2014-06007-FU%2049%20BARKLY%20ROAD.pdf
Hopefully the correct decision will be made and the application will be rejected.
I somehow doubt that a refusal will be the end of the matter though.
Nothing against AC but the site on Barkly Road is just about the worst one you could come up with for a development of this particular nature.