Controversial housing estate near Waverley Lake gets green light

A development will see the erection of 456 residential houses - including 149 affordable units - on an 11-hectare waterside site adjacent to Highwall Park and Waverley Lake.

The site has an extensive history of coal mining and it is associated with industrial activity, dating back to some two centuries, a report says.

Lisa Brooks, a Senior Planning Officer at RMBC, said the developers sought the detailed approval of 456 dwelling houses and 477 sqm of commercial floorspace last Thursday (April 27) in a planning board meeting at Rotherham town hall.

The committee heard how the application had been revised to provide an increased amount of “non-residential floorspace”.

Ms Brooks said: “It will complement the recreational use of the lakes and the surrounding open space.”

She added that Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes, the applicants, plan to build 21 one-bed apartments, 99 two-bed dwellings, 233 three-bed dwellings and 103 four-bed dwellings.

Ms Brooks said of these 149 are proposed to be affordable units - which equates to 32.7 per cent of this area of the scheme.

She added: “That exceeds the 31 per cent required."

The majority of the dwellings are two-storey, the planning board was told.

There had been 13 objections submitted against this application, Ms Brooks said, including one from Waverley Community Council.

The objectors raised concerns about the ability of existing roads and facilities to cope with extra residents; drainage; lack of green spaces; road safety and lack of doctors, dentists and secondary schools.

One resident said, “A shame houses are being built so close to the reservoir as it was billed as a nature reserve”.

Mark Jones from Barratt Homes, the applicant, said: “There is a need for housing nationally as well locally, in Rotherham.”

He added this scheme would deliver 456 new homes and also “deliver a commercial hub of non-residential uses along the waterfronts”.

An objector told the planning committee that the “additional housing will bring a large uplift in traffic”.

She said the residents’ concern was to witness accidents and near misses so they requested that the applicant “be required to provide speed-calming measures” to better manage traffic on the estate.

Cllr Simon Burnett said: “I fully understand the commercial units on the waterfront are designed for local residents to walk but today a lot of people do drive.

“Nipping to the shops or nipping for a coffee whatever that retail outlet be, is likely to cause someone or residents to drive.

“I just try to understand where residents will park if they do decide to go for a coffee or shop?”

Cllr Even Rose Keenan said the proposal looked so nice she would like to live there too.

However, she added, she did not understand why a biodiversity and mitigation enhancement strategy cooperating with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust cannot be put forward first.

She said: “I know you don’t want to delay it.

“It’s going to be built.

“We know we need houses. So why can’t you do that first and get the mitigation and make sure that the people that live there and the wildlife is protected before it even begins?”

The application was approved by a majority of ten to three