Brown's Site development
From Susan QuickWednesday, 17 March 2021
In August last year Abigail Kellet reported in Halifax Courier that new research has revealed that Hebden Bridge has been named in top 25 most beautiful locations in the UK. Highlife, British Airways flight magazine, reported that Hebden Bridge is the 4th Funkiest Town in the World!
We're in grave danger of such accolades fast disappearing if visitors are greeted by a Tesco, Aldi, Asda or Morrison's on Brown's site as they enter along the A646 from Todmorden, passing through gentle countryside villages Charlestown and Eastwood. Not long ago there was a citizen's revolt against the prospect of a supermarket on the former Fire Station site. It's time to do it again!
Mytholm residents are already taking to the streets and dropping leaflets through our letterboxes. Let's join the campaign. Remind the world we don't need supermarket chains. We value our "quirky" little town, just as it is.
How about we follow Louisiana, a water-filled American State? I got married there! Homes are built on stilts. Water flows past. If we could build something similar on Brown's it would add to Hebden Bridge quirkiness!
From Myra James
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
I have made enquiries in a number of quarters about recent activity on the Mytholm Works, aka Brown's site. For anyone who doesn't know, the part of the site that is owned by Belmont Homes (not the Setbray section) has been completely flattened, and work is underway to move the goit which currently carries water across the site. The first we knew was when a large number of trees was felled last week.
Calderdale tree officer Keith Grady was informed and visited the same day. He reported that no protected trees had been felled and that an ecologist had assessed the site, presumably for nesting birds etc.
He put us in touch with a planning officer who informed us that the planning permission for a supermarket and hotel, granted in December 2013, had not expired, as we assumed it had. By virtue of construction of a piece of kerb on an access road the developers were deemed to have implemented the permission, which was therefore extended indefinitely.
This is in spite of the fact that there have since been two devastating floods that have turned the entire area into a large lake, and the fact that the site is now designated as a flood zone 3B, functional floodplain, which means no development can take place there.
We wondered whether the landowners had at last been able to interest a supermarket in the site and intended to act upon the 2013 permissions, which it seemed they would be entitled to do irrespective of the later floodplain designation.
However, information from Craig Whittaker's assistant indicates that the likely scenario is that the landowners are preparing the site for submission of a new planning application, probably for housing.
This was confirmed tonight at a meeting of Hebden Royd Town Council, where I asked a question about all of the above. There was also discussion at the meeting of the importance of the Neighbourhood Plan in this respect. The draft plan is currently out for consultation. In the context of this site (and any other site of interest) it is important that local people should state what they wish the Neighbourhood Plan to say about how it should be developed.
The current position is that there are two possible courses of action in respect of Brown's site:
- If development cannot take place, ie if the Environment Agency will not agree to remove the floodplain designation, the Neighbourhood Plan would pursue a policy of environmental improvement on the site, as has already happened in the case of Brearley Fields.
- If development were to become possible, the Neighbourhood Plan would prepare a Key Site Statement, which would work hand in hand with the design code.
For more information on the Neighbourhood Plan, including how to respond to the consultation procedure, see: https://www.hebdenhilltopplan.co.uk/
From Tom S
Friday, 16 April 2021
It's almost as if you speak for everyone, Susan.
Previously
HebWeb News: Neighbourhood Plan: Regeneration and new housing (26 Feb 2021)
HebWeb Forum: New Supermarket and Hotel plan? (Oct-Nov 2012)
HebWeb News: Planners recommend refusal of plans (27 November 2012)
HebWeb Forum: Brown's site (July-Oct 2012)
HebWeb News: Public Meeting at Stubbing Wharf (October 2012)
HebWeb Forum: Brown's site (March-May 2012)
HebWeb News: Protests as Town Council discusses the Sainsburys bid (Jan 2014)
HebWeb Forum - Sainsbury's and Tesco's (2013-2014)