South Yorkshire housing development approved despite traffic and road safety concerns

A major housing development in Brampton, Rotherham, has been approved today (November 3), despite concerns over an increase in traffic and lack of pedestrian crossings.

Persimmon Homes has been granted permission to build 311 homes on 11.73 hectares of land off Barnsley Road and Pontefract Road.

Vehicle access is proposed off Barnsley Road, and the properties will be a mix of two to five bed homes, 15 of which will be two-and-a-half stories.

The developer will be required to contribute more than £1m in S106 money for sustainable transport, new bus shelters and sport provision.

More than £600,000 of that money will be used to fund school places in the area.

Seventy-eight homes – 25 per cent of properties on the development – will be allocated as “affordable”.

A transport assessment concluded that “the proposed development would not result in a severe impact on the operation of the transport network, and that there are no substantive highway reasons why the proposal should not be granted planning consent”.

The developer proposes to plant new hedgerows, provide bat and bird boxes, and design a “sensitive” lighting scheme to mitigate any environmental impacts.

Air quality impacts as a result of traffic generated by the development were “not predicted to be significant at any sensitive location in the vicinity of the site”.

Objections were received from people at seven properties, as well as councillor David Roche and the British Horse Society.

Lisa Brooks, senior planning officer, told the meeting that “very few objections had been received”, adding that the main objections relate to highways safety impacts – although the application is supported by a transport assessment.

“The concerns raised relate to the volume and the speed of vehicles travelling along these roads making it difficult for pedestrians to cross and the concerns that the number of trips associated with the proposed development will make matters worse,” added Ms Brooks.

“Colleagues in our transportation department have looked into this and consider that the location amount of traffic doesn’t currently warrant a formal crossing.”

Ms Brooks added that the S106 contribution toward sustainable travel measures could be used to fund a pelican or zebra crossing.

Rachel Martin, on behalf of the applicant, told the meeting that council officers had “concluded the overall character appearance and layout of the scheme mitigates any potential impact and that the application should be approved”, and added that “detailed work has been carried out to consider the traffic impact, and officers agree that development will not result in severe impact on the operation of the transport network”.

Councillor Denise Lelliott, Hoober’s ward councillor, submitted her objections to the planning board.

In her letter, she stated that she regularly sees people struggling to cross Wath Road, and that the double roundabout is “over capacity”.

Councillor David Roche, fellow ward councillor, added that he had ” major concerns over traffic and public safety” due to an extra 500 cars predicted for the development.

“I often have to cross Barnsley Road, and even with an island further down it can take 10 plus minutes because of the number of speeding cars,” he said.

“At rush hour I have seen cars backed up to a half mile.”

The committee voted in favour of the scheme.