M62 corridor towns
Those poor old towns along the M62 corridor really will bear the brunt of development in West Yorkshire over the coming decade. Im sure developers will make spurious claims of sustainable locations, but in reality, the West Yorkshire lifestyle will become more dependent on the M62, for going to work, for shopping, and for getting home. The sprawl in these towns means you can barely differentiate between the likes of Morley or Birstall or Birkinshaw any more. If only a strong green belt, and an inviolable conservation area status was given to the highstreets in these towns, perhaps they would be more than dormitories of Leeds.
47 Dwellings on Brownfield land in Drighlington.
The designs are as good as you will get from a volume housebuilder, so even I concede things are improving. Yet still there is no justification to knock everything down. Goodbye to this little gem:
I would welcome this development were they to maintain the street front, transform the cul-de-sac into a through road, and be extremely sympathetic with building materials. A step in the right direction, but still a long road ahead.
Hidden farmhouse with potential in Keighley
An application to Demolish a workshop and a “house” has been submitted this week to Bradford. It turns out that the said house is a well hidden historic farmhouse. It is in disrepair, but I would advise the applicant that more value can be added to this site by retaining the building and augmenting the site with vernacular new builds.
Worthville Farm near Dawson Road in Keighley is a hidden gem amongst 20th century suburban sprawl.
The plans suggest that the footprint of the old farm building would be within the gardens of the proposed 8 dwellings.
Why not keep the farm house and build around it?
If anyone has any other info regarding this building, please get in touch
Demolishing a Pub…to extend a car park
Closed pubs can be awkward to convert due to large car parks and difficulty in adapting, and so the option to demolish is often taken, as I have highlighted almost each week on this blog. This is unforgivable but at least is tenuously justified. To demolish a victorian pubic house to extend a car park is simply unacceptable:
The Ring of Bells in Cleckheaton seems lijkely to succumb to this fate.
This building is vital to the quickly eroding street front, and has more economic potential standing and waiting for a few years for a use, than as a tarmac recess.
I can’t imagine Kirklees council allowing this to pass, but sadly the lack of a local plan will ensure democracy in all matters of spatial planning is not realised. Everyone in West Yorkshire could oppose this and it would still happen.
Interesting houses, replaced with generic polyhedrons
A couple of houses in West Yorkshire have been submitted for demolition:
This piece of unique form on Town Gate, Mirfield:
Town Gate suggests something of a historic thoroughfare in Mirfield. The town is almost bereft of its heritage these days. Sad to see such buildings go.
This building in Castleford has me perplexed. I’ve never seen anything like it. Any ideas as to the date or style please let me know. Its certainly not Victorian heritage but worthy of retaining
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The Demolition Register 