Objections rejected over housing plan for farm paddock

A former farm paddock will go to make way for new housing in a village despite objections from residents and councillors ‘regarding’ the plot as protected green space.

Full details of the layout of the site, off Barnsley Road in Silkstone, will be decided later it was accepted as part of the application that new road safety measures will be needed, with the likelihood of moving the start of a 30mph limit further from the site’s access and painting ‘dragon’s teeth’ on the road surface to warn approaching drivers of an impending hazard.

A former field gate will be used to create a drive to the site, which is likely to accommodate three homes, but that is close to another road junction, the access to the Pot House Hamlet garden centre and close to two bus stops.

A presentation from residents warned councillors on Barnsley Council’s planning board that traffic would create a safety issue, though the application was approved.

Residents, Silkstone Parish Council and the three Barnsley Councillors who represent the area had all raised objections and Coun Paul Hand-Davis, who sits on the board, said: “It is disappointing that this isn’t green belt and is not protected, because I think it should be.

“Silkstone Parish Council did a lot of work on the village design statement and regard this as protected land.”

A development of houses on the site would be “incongruous” alongside existing bungalows, he said.

Board chairman Coun Doug Birkinshaw said there was little planners could do to prevent an existing access being used as a route onto a development site.

He said: “I accept that sometimes you get an old farm gate and it is very difficult to refuse on the grounds of highways. It is there and you cannot argue that it is in a bad spot,” he said.

The site is also close to the historic Silkstone waggon way, the site of an early railway used to transport coal mined in the area as that industry was its infancy, with concerns raised about the impact of having a new development alongside.

However, council planning officers were happy that the site was suitable for housing and was not in the green belt, did not appear on the authority’s register of green spaces and had no public access.

*A resident who moved into a bungalow with planning permission for major extension work has entered a legal agreement with Barnsley Council to scrap that plan, because he wants a large garage instead.

Antony Bird wanted to put a new garage and store in the garden of a bungalow in Halifax Road, Penistone, which is in the green belt.

Permission had been granted previously for extension work to the property which would have doubled its size and adding a garage would have gone beyond that, which is the limit set by planners for extending properties.

So he returned to the planning board which accepted a legal agreement to void the original application in favour of the garage plan.