Another Lowfields development “drop in” takes place today
Alternatively Email your views to lowfield.development@york.gov.uk
York Council officials have now given a preview of their plans for the redevelopment of the Lowfields school site (above).
The scheme – called “Lowfield Green” (sic) – includes the “provision of a care home, age related housing including bungalows, a health and police centre, family housing, plots for self-build and public open space”.
The scheme still involves building on the sports pitches but officials claim they wish to retain the mature trees on the site and provide a “pocket park and allotments“.
The Council plans to relocate the football provision to a site off of Tadcaster Road, in partnership with Woodthorpe Wanderers. This will allow them to have fenced off pitches which help with the “player environment”.
Residents are invited to two drop-in sessions with council officers who will explain the plans and answer questions. The drop-in sessions will take place on Wednesday 12 October and Tuesday 18 October between 4.30pm and 7.30pm at the Oak room, Gateway Community Church on Front Street. The plans will also be on display at Acomb Explore Library Learning Centre from Wednesday 12 October for 3 weeks where residents will be able to feedback.
Alternatively residents can have their say by emailing lowfield.development@york.gov.uk or see www.york.gov.uk/consultations.
Even a casual glance to the proposals confirms that they represent a gross over-development of the site. Fundamental mistakes include the provision of a through road from Dijon Avenue to Tudor Road (previous plans had indicate access from two cul de sacs to minimise short cutting).
The plans include two big traffic generators.
One is the GP surgery which is to be transferred from its present location on Cornlands Road. While there are bus stops within 100 metres of the Cornlands Road site the nearest equivalent public transport point to Lowfields is about 1/4 mile away on Front Street (although a one direction service does serve Tudor Road). This means that most who attend the surgery will drive to the site.
Another big traffic generator would be the proposed Police depot. The Police intend to close their Acomb Road station and relocate vehicle parking, messing and briefing facilities. There are no plans to provide a manned police reporting desk (either here or at the Acomb Library which is the location favoured by the majority of local residents). However 24/7 vehicular access will be required.
Taken together the Surgery and Police depot will have a major impact on traffic levels and parking problems in what is currently a quiet residential area.
Although putting starter homes near to elderly persons accommodation may seem attractive to some, history suggests that the differing lifestyles of the two age groups are rarely compatible,. We think that the site should be reserved for older residents who could be encouraged to “downsize” from their exiting larger houses, freeing them for family use
All in all these are very disappointing proposals.
The Council has not yet even responded to the public consultation comments submitted a couple of months ago when the Draft Local Plan revealed that the number of homes planned for Lowfields had more than doubled.
The Council should let that process conclude before tabling new plans.
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EARLIER – Residents have criticised the York Council for not updating them about the future of the Lowfields school site.
Many returned comment forms when a Local Plan consultation took place in Acomb 2 months ago. No one has received any feedback.
Residents had also been told in the summer that a further consultation event would be held during October but so far the Council have not confirmed that this will actually take place.
Residents completing a survey form had criticised the Council plans which would see building on the school playing fields. This was a direct contravention of assurances given when the school closed over 6 years ago and flies in the face of national government policy on the retention of sports pitches and facilities.
Latest residents survey results
Residents want to see the site used predominantly to provide accommodation aimed at older age groups. They have been particularly concerned about proposals to move police vehicle garaging & messing facilities from the present York Road site into the area. They fear that 24/7 access will exacerbate, already difficult, traffic and parking issues in the small estate.
Two weeks ago the NHS said that it had discounted the site as a possible location for a new mental health hospital
The Council is next scheduled to discuss the Lowfields plans at a meeting taking place on 8th December.
The proposal brought a strong reaction from local residents who pointed out that access to Lowfields was only available through a tightly populated residential area. Increased traffic – potentially 24/7 – would have had an adverse effect on the local environment.
In a poll conducted by local LibDem Councillors in July, 57% rejected the idea. Many pointed out that City centre sites offered much better transport links for both staff and patients. Residents favoured the provision of accommodation aimed at older people on the footprint of the former secondary school.
Now we understand that the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust are focusing their hospital search on three locations. They are the existing Bootham Park Hospital site, a site near Clifton Park Hospital off Shipton Road, and the former Vickers and Bio-Rad factory site in Haxby Road.
The Councils formal consultation on the future of the Lowfields school site is due to commence in October.
It is likely that there will be an exhibition of proposals at the Acomb Library. before a decision is taken by the Council’s Executive on 8th December.
Many residents also took the opportunity to object to the Council’s plans to build on the Lowfields sports fields when responding to the recent consultation on the Local Plan.
They pointed out that building on football pitches was contrary to national policies and would leave minimal amounts of green space in the nearby estates.
Residents, dismayed by the York Council’s plan to build on the sports field at the old Lowfields school site, are planning to register their objections at a Local Plan meeting tomorrow (Thursday).
The meeting is described as a “drop in” and takes place at the Acomb Explore Library. The Library is open between 9:00am – 9.30pm
The Local Plan has been changed to allocate 13 acres of land at the site for the development of up to 137 homes. Previous plans had restricted any development to the built footprint of the former school itself (6.5 acres).
In a recent survey residents indicted that they wanted more of the public green space in the area conserved with the retention of a sports pitch and the provision of a nature reserve popular suggestions.
Some residents have already recorded their objections to the Councils plan to overdevelop the Lowfields site.
Go online: www.york.gov.uk/localplan to complete the survey and to find a full copy of the Local Plan Preferred Sites document
York Council views on Lowfields development. Click to view whole report
Oakhaven
No external alterations are proposed to the building and internal changes are minimal. Currently the property has 27 bedrooms. The proposal is to change it to 10 one bed flats and 5 two bed flats.
Oakhaven has been empty – apart from some police training use – since it was closed last year.
The Council had talked euphemistically about the buildings being used to “house local families”. It turns out that the flats will replace the Ordnance Lane facility which is being demolished. Those units cater for homeless families and some individuals. Occasionally they have housed teenagers on remand.
There are already two buildings being used to house homeless people in this part of the City (Holgate Road and Howe Hill)
Inevitably there are problems with any transient use. Noise and chaotic lifestyles do not always sit well with quieter neighbourhoods or – in the case of the Front Street area – a recovering shopping precinct.
Most homeless families, of course, simply want to be moved a permanent home as quickly as possible. That should be the Council’s main target.
The Council’s planning committee is being recommended to approve the use of the building as a homeless hostel for up to 18 months.
The Council has said that in 2018 it will build an extra care elderly people’s facility on the site.
Residents, businesses, developers and landowners are being encouraged to help shape one of the most important strategies of our generation, by having their say on the Local Plan sites consultation.
City of York Council is currently preparing York’s Local Plan, which will support the city’s economic growth, protect York’s green belt, address the shortage of housing and help shape future development and employment in York over the next 15 years and beyond.
The eight-week consultation runs from Monday 18 July until 5pm on Monday 12 September on the Local Plan Preferred Sites document, which outlines revised figures for housing, employment and sites.
The council has provided a choice of ways for people to have their say, including joining officers at a number of drop-in events across the city, where they will be on hand to help answer any questions:
Acomb Explore Library
The proposals include several controversial proposals including a plan to overdevelop the Lowfields school site.
Football gala at Lowfields playing fields. The latest plans threaten to build on this green space.
From next week, every household in York is being sent a copy of a special edition of the council’s newsletter Our City, which provides lots of ways they can feedback during the consultation, including a freepost address.
For further opportunities to feedback, or to find out more information:
Go online: www.york.gov.uk/localplan to complete the survey and to find a full copy of the Local Plan Preferred Sites document
Pop into: any of York’s local libraries/Explore centres or the council’s West Offices to see the proposals throughout the consultation period
Email: localplan@york.gov.uk
Telephone: 01904 552255
Get involved: on Twitter @CityofYork or Facebook @CityofYorkCouncil via the hashtag #YorkLocalPlan
Write to:
Freepost RTEG-TYYU-KLTZ, Local Plan, City of York Council, West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA
To find out more about the Local Plan proposals read our news article here
Former Lowfields School entrance
Last night members of the committee and officials refused to acknowledge the concerns about the plan which were tabled by local Councillor Andrew Waller.
The committee had been told of the results of a survey undertaken in the area over the last week (see foot of page).
The survey results – covering over 300 households – revealed that the community was dismayed at some of the remarks contained in an officer report.
In particular:
Labour Councillors first considered building on the football pitches in 2012.
Many residents say that they hoped that the Council would agree to honour its historic commitment to the local community and restrict development to a 6.5 acre site.
Lowfields care village 2011 plans – now substantially changed
It looks like an elderly persons care home could still be built on the Lowfields school site. In the latest of a series of policy changes the Council is now being recommended to allocate 3 acres, of the 13.4 acre site, for a private sector care home. This compares to the 6.4 acres allocated 6 years ago for the construction of an elderly persons “village”. Only the footprint of the old school would have been developed under the old plan. That scheme was eventually dropped when the Council decided to concentrate investment on the east of the City at Burnholme.
We welcome the decision to provide more elderly care facilities on the west of the City. The former school site is ideal being conveniently located for the full range of amenities which can be found in the Front Street area.
The rest of the site – including most of the open space/football pitches – would have houses built on it. Currently the football pitches are used by a local team. There is a shortage of pitches (and open space) on the west of the City, although the Council hopes to find a new pitch for the team in the Tadcaster Road area. (A football pitch takes up about 2 acres of land).
The Council plans to divide up the use of the Lowfields site as follows:
In total 137 homes would be built. This compares to the 210 homes in the existing Lowfields estate. Officials say that the homes would be “high density” quoting the top of Tedder Road as an example of similar recently constructed houses. Those homes, although popular, do suffer from some issues such as the lack of car parking space. Some are three storeys high.
Officials promise a mix of housing types including “starter homes”, bungalows (like those in Regent Street) and apartments targeted at older people “downsizing” to smaller accommodation. Some land may be allocated for “self build” homes. Access to some of the homes would be from Tudor Road (meaning a road link between numbers 108 & 110). The footpath/cycle link to little Tudor Road would also be reopened.
The report talks of providing health and wellbeing facilities and hints that the Priory Health Centre on Cornlands Road may close and move onto the site.
There is talk of some police activities transferring from York Road to the site. It is now clear that the police intend to sell off the Acomb police station. If this facilitated the provision of a police desk on Front Street at the library, then that may be regarded as a step forward. Especially so if the derelict land to the rear of the library were developed as part of the project.
Site has been unused since 2007
Putting a police office in the middle of an elderly person’s development could be viewed as a strange move increasing as it would the amount of traffic and noise in the area. (There is a similar criticism of the NHS proposal to establish a mental health hospital on the site).
One particular concern likely to be raised by local residents is that officials want to see the development of the site on a “piecemeal” basis. That could mean building works (and the associated heavy traffic) being a burden for local residents for many years. It would seem to be more sensible to agree a blue-print for the whole of the site and then sell it on the basis that completion must be achieved within an agreed timetable.
At the moment the opening date for the care home is put at 2019.
When consulted in 2010 local residents were strongly in favour of restricting development to the footprint of the school. Most wanted the open space to be preserved although there was support for a nature reserve and/or allotments on part of the site.
So there is mixed news here. The future of the Lowfields site may finally be determined and the preferred use – supported by residents responding to surveys in 2010 – of a development aimed at older people achieved. But the Council, in a bid to increase the value of the site to £3.8 million, seems prepared to jettison some of the assurances it give when the school closed in 2007.
Some serious consultation with affected residents is now needed.
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