URGENT ACTION: SUBMIT A NEUTRAL COMMENT

The East of Otley application (21/01671/OT) is available to view as of 12:00 noon Monday 17th May 2021 on the Leeds City Council Planning Portal.

Due to the sheer size and complexity of the application, it is going to take a long time for our army of volunteers to process all of the information. However, after our first look, the plans do appear to contain a lot of what we feared, and it appears that the planners have paid little heed to the local community or the climate emergencies declared locally and nationally. This is NOT a plan for an exemplar development.

Key issues we have discovered with the plans so far include (but are not limited to):

• Number of houses increased to 700+

• No commitment to building sustainably

• No commitment to the number of affordable homes

• No concrete biodiversity commitments

• No separate active transport routes

• The gravel extraction road has not been raised to accomodate pedestrians and wildlife

• Playing fields to be built over

• Trees and hedgerows to be destroyed

• Further encroachment into the greenbelt to the east of the new road

• No terraced houses to fit in with the character of the town

• No reference to increased amenity

As we break down the plan further we will be sharing what we discover on our website, social media platforms, and to our mailing list, so that you have the key information available at your fingertips when it comes to writing your response on the Planning Portal.

For now, however, we are asking people to help us secure some more critical information about the plans. A masterplan drawing that can be related to features on the ground has not been submitted. In order for us to obtain one, we would ask you to do the following:

(1) Click here to access the Leeds City Council planning page. (2) Click on the green button labelled: “Search planning applications using Public Access” (3) Search for “21/01671/OT” (4) Click on Login (or Register if you are new to the system) – both on a bar near the top of the window. (5) Once logged in, go to the “home page” again – as (3). (6) Click the Comments tab – this will display the Make a Comment form (7) For “Commenter Type” select Neighbour response from the drop-down list (8) For “Stance” select Neutral. (9) For “Your Comment” select the bold text below (ending Many Thanks!) and copy and paste it into the the comment box.

None of the “public consultation” colour coded Masterplan drawings allowed the proposed internal layout of the development to be related to existing features on the site. This is also the case for the application drawing “Concept Masterplan”.

PLEASE CAN AN URGENT REQUEST be made to the applicant to submit a masterplan drawing with semi-transparent colour coding overlaying an existing map of the site? Many Thanks!

(10) Check that the comment looks OK and click the Submit button.