Cllr Barry Anderson

As you will be aware the condition of the car park surface at Golden Acre park (off Otley Road) is in a very unsuitable state. A funding application was made as follows:

“To reinstate the tarmac surfaced areas of the car park and to reinstate the parking bays with a granular base. Funding will pay for the widening of the tarmac to 6m, regrade sub-base and then lay a wearing course in tarmac, clean out and regulate pot holes with macadam to spine roads.  Regrade parking bays to new level, lay and roll out granulated base.”

At a recent Area Committee meeting the Adel & Wharfedale Councillors agreed we would contribute £10,000 towards resurfacing the car park off Otley Road in Golden Acre Park, which left a shortfall of £20,000. £5000 is being contributed by the Otley & Yeadon Councillors and £1000 from the Councillors in Alwoodley. Confirmation has now been received that the balance will be contributed by Parks & Countryside.

I, along with a small group from the Adel Association, met with the Council’s Planner following the news that the Plans Panel had rejected the materials that were going to be used for this development. The Planner confirmed the Panel didn’t like the sample wall on display in the field that they had seen on the site visit. The Panel discharged a condition to the Planning officers to look at the materials again.

The Planner also confirmed that the houses would definitely not be in red brick or any other brick, they would be built in artificial stone. We were told there are a number of colours available and the Planner advised that darker colours weather better and in ten years time will look a lot more real than a gold or light colour.

The developer will now build 5 or 6 small dwarf walls in the field in different colours so that residents can go and look at these and see which they prefer. I have been asked to feed your views back to the developer via the Planning Department. A lot of weight would be put on what residents prefer.

As soon as I get notice that the walls are to be built I will let you know and I look forwarding to receiving your comments.

I was contacted by a local resident to ask whether there were any plans to upgrade the bridleway that crosses the A660. Following my contacting the Public Rights of Way Officer he held a site meeting to seek a resolution to the difficulty and danger of linking 3 bridleways together near the Parkway Hotel on the A660 near Golden Acre Park.

Linked to this is the Highways proposals looking into a 50 mph limit for this stretch of road.

Highways (Traffic) Officers have been consulted on what they might be able to do regarding slowing traffic down and moving it further away from the kerb edge, possibly by narrowing the lanes/realigning the white lining etc. They have also asked the Highways Cycling Officer for his opinion on what could feasibly be done to help off-road cyclists seeking to link these off-set bridleway routes together.

Public Rights of Way are looking at some improvement work to the entrance to the bridleway next to the Parkway Hotel to improve its junction with the road by ramping the path to form a longer and wider waiting area which would be of assistance to horse riders. This work could be realistically undertaken in May/June at the earliest.

Funding has been secured to set up No Cold Calling Zones throughout the area, in partnership with West Yorkshire Joint Services (Trading Standards) and West Yorkshire Police. The aim is to provide some protection for residents from rogue traders and intrusive callers. If you feel your street or cul de sac would benefit from this scheme, please contact me.

You may have heard some comments about the revised opening hours at the above surgery. Set out below is a reply I have received from a local resident, who is a member of the Patient Referral Group which hopefully will reassure you about opening hours.

“The closure on Thursday afternoons is only one aspect of the changes, in addition you will find extended opening hours every day.

The surgery will be open from 8.00 to 12.30 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings and from 8.00 to 12.00 on Wednesday and Friday. That is between 4 and 4.5 hours per day compared with 2 hours 10 mins currently.

Afternoon surgeries are going to be 2pm to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. 4 hours per day compared with the current 2 hours 30 minutes.

The pharmacy tell me they have no plans to close on Thursday afternoons and so patients can leave repeat prescriptions there or even in the outside post box when closed.  They also offer a repeat ordering system and delivery for patients who need the service.”

If you have any other questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to obtain a response.

A funding application was received from the Police to fund Off Road Bikes for officers to deal with illegal off road motor cycling, anti social behaviour and to assist with high visibility patrols, particularly focusing on greenspaces. The local Area Committee and the Police agreed to fund this project jointly.

OPAL at Holt Park run a number of exercise classes for older people, they would like to develop these classes further. Funding was approved by the Adel & Wharfedale Councillors and this will part-fund these classes plus provide other health information for older people.

I was contacted back in October by a local drama group in respect of the announced closure and dispersal of the Wakefield Music and Drama Library. A suggestion was made as to whether Leeds could house all or part of this collection and Leisure Services subsequently made a bid for the drama collection. The Wakefield Library closed on 31^st March and Leeds was successful in its bid for the drama collection. A press release was issued by Wakefield as follows:

“Subject to legal agreements being completed, it has been agreed that the drama collection will move to Leeds Libraries to be based in their Central Library and the music will be housed in Kirklees Library HQ’s on Red Doles Lane in Huddersfield, with the collection to be managed by the social enterprise Fresh Horizons.  

Leeds Leisure Services have also advised me “We are working towards moving the Drama collection across and having it publicly available from the beginning of May; this will mean there is little if any down time.  We will also write to the Leeds groups as soon as we have more information to pass on about both the Music and Drama collections.”

I have received the following update from the Principal Planner in this case:

 “The application was not revised. We have refused Outline planning permission at the Bodington Hall site because of our concerns over the use of Adel Lane as a two way means of access. We issued a delegated refusal last Friday. We are hopeful that the applicant will continue to work with us to resolve our concerns over the use of this access.”

If you would like a copy of the decision report please let me know.

Residents in the Cookridge area have contacted me as a result of them seeing surveying activity in the fields at Moseley Wood Bottom. The position as I am aware, is as follows:

The land is no longer in the green belt it is classed as Greenfield and its planning designation is Protected Area of Search, which means it is not guaranteed that housing will be built there but the Planning Inspector who looked into housing land a number of years ago felt that it could possibly be a suitable location in the future. 

Any landowner/developer interested in this site will then have the opportunity to submit to the Council their request that this land be allocated for housing purposes in the forthcoming City Plan. 

The Plan will be the subject of public consultation and residents will have the opportunity to raise views, concerns etc.  

The new Plan will replace the current Unitary Development Plan which allocated housing land and was based on providing land sufficient to build approx. 2000 houses per annum. The new plan based on Government guidance and information will mean the Council will need to identify enough land for between 4500 to 5000 houses per annum. It is as a result of this that the area of land at Moseley Wood Bottom could be included in potential development sites. Information on this will be issued by the Council between March and Autumn 2012. 

Some months ago I suggested one way for residents to try and get the best they can for the location would be to develop a Neighbourhood Plan. If you are interested in getting involved in establishing a plan for Cookridge, please contact me.