The town of Dewsbury barely has a high street anymore. A beautiful industrial town is still somewhat visible beneath bookmakers and takeaways. he centre of Dewsbury desperately needs to be repopulated by both people and money. Why then would anyone allow for 200 houses to be built on greenfields away from the centre, next to a pristine A-road that is the fastest route out of town?

http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2014%2f90780

Its just houses, lots of houses, not a place, and doesn’t acknowledge Dewsbury. Just houses and targets and spreadsheets and yields.

Not an urban culture, and not a rural culture. Middle England likes to sit on the fence, assuming to reap the best of both, yet commits to neither, resulting in dependence on Netflix for culture.

This:

Will become this:

Click here to oppose

Permission for 700 houses to be built onto Scholes village to the north east of Leeds is being saught here:

https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=N1POJ9JB17S00

This is really pushing the envelope of the commuter radius into Leeds city center. 700 houses, at least 700 cars, 2 journeys per day as a  minimum. The argument against permission on ecological grounds alone is enough. Scholes already being a suburb of itself sets a precedent, meaning permission will almost certainly be granted. This will in turn set a precedent for any other developer who wishes to lay waste to some farm land in the Leeds hinterland at this outlying radius. When all the farmland is gone, we will move further into the countryside, justified by ‘housing shortage’. It is a ruinous cycle.

700 dwellings could do amazing things to the business and society of urban Leeds. What a wasted opportunity.