Changes approved for village housing estate while work proceeds

Coun Bob Blythe, of Thurgoland Parish Council raised objections to plans which would see an estate of 24 homes on land off Cote Lane in the village extended to allow 27 new houses constructed, replacing some that had five bedroomed with more smaller houses.

Planning officials recommended the change was approved because it increased the number of bedrooms on the site by only six and numbers of houses overall were still below the expected threshold for new developments.

However, Coun Bythe told members, who went on to accept the new plans: “This fiasco can easily be resolved by you refusing this application. This is the right thing to do.”

He said “many members of the public are beginning to fear” that developers had too much influence.

Sales details for the development had already been changed to show the new propsals before councillors had met to consider them, he said.

The extended development will mean more money being paid to Barnsley Council under ‘Section 106’ arrangements, where contributions have to be made to take into account the additional burden the new housing puts on services like education.

However, the site will not yield the 30 per cent ‘affordable housing’ quota expected of developments in that area.

Councillors were told the authority could not insist on that because the original application had been granted under a previous system where the expected target for providing affordable homes was 25 per cent of the houses provided.