Developers criticised over family home shortage among Kirkstall Road plans

Latimer are seeking planning permission for a massive 1,800 home complex on the site of the old City Reach chemical works on Kirkstall Road.

If approved, the scheme will include 362 student apartments, plus health, shopping and leisure facilities to create a standalone community across 11 separate blocks.

But while local councillors have praised aspects of the scheme, including its design, they’ve rebuked the developers for committing to building only a handful of three-bed properties.

Of the initial 623 homes to be built, only 17 would be three-beds, with the remainder made up of one and two-beds.

Latimer, a subsidiary of the social housing provider Clarion, have indicated they’d be happy to look again at the housing mix among the wider scheme, once the first phase of building is underway.

But speaking at a meeting on Thursday, where the plans were publicly debated, Councillor Al Garthwaite (Labour) said: “There are number of large multi-generational families in that area and this doesn’t cater for their potential needs. That’s regrettable.”

The council has expressed a strong desire to see at least 10 per cent of all mass housing developments become three-bed homes.

Conservative councillor Dan Cohen suggested that “marker in the sand has been washed away by the River Aire in this instance.”

Addressing the concerns, Clarion’s project director Mike Briffett said: “We’ve tried to achieve the best housing mix we can.

“We’ve tried to create a scheme that’s inclusive as it possibly can be. I take the point about three bed homes.

“We’ve worked very hard to come up with a scheme that’s a sustainable scheme overall, not just from a design point of view, but from a financial point of view as well.”

Richard Cook, Clarion’s group director added: “We want to build a community people want to belong to here. That’s the aim and that’s what we’re all about.

“We’re going to be managing the development, so it has to be a success. We’re not an in-and-out developer.”

Councillors voted to defer the scheme to officers for further work, before a more detailed application is brought back to be either approved or rejected.

Labour councillor Neil Walshaw said: “A lot of this (application) is very good but what a strong community needs is long-term residents and that comes from three-bed properties.

But he added: “I think it is an excellent development. I like the designs as a nod to the industrial heritage of the area and I think they’ll age well on the Leeds skyline.

“I think we should consider how much better this is than previous applications for this site are, because some of them have been very bad.”