Ref: PNW00358 HMCA\Topic: Outer North East Subject: Site in the plan Site: MX2-39 - Parlington Estate, Aberford Agree with proposed use? No Soundness Consider the plan sound? No Test of soundness addressed: Positively prepared Effective Justified Consistent with NPPF Changes required to make sound: The development is much too big for the current environment and not in keeping with the controlled expansion of villages and towns. This is not a village, but a new town! The site should be considered as an area of natural beauty and developed as a country park widening the usuage for the whole city of leeds. Issues Issue: Other - Local Character Local Character of the two small villages of Aberford and Barwick in Elmet with their unique identities and traditions are in danger of being destroyed by being amalgamated into one giant development in the future. Issue: Site boundary The site boundary encompasses most of the Parlington Civil Parish. It is massively too big dwarfing the two local villages or Aberford and Barwick In Elmet. The result of which may lead to one large conurbation in the future. Issue: Highways and transport the highway infrastructure in the area is totally inadequate to accommodate an additional 5,000 or more cars (or even 10,000 cars) and their average daily vehicle movements (25,000). The existing traffic volumes from Barwick, Aberford and the neighbouring villages already swamp the narrow and weight- limited bridges. The low and narrow rail bridge at Barwick Road, Garforth and the inadequate Town End junction in Garforth, where accidents and congestions occur frequently. Town End has already been identified as limiting factors in previous planning applications in both Barwick Parish and Garforth. It is my view that the site should not be allocated due the insoluble highways issues highlighted above. Issue: Schools The current school infrastructure can not cope with the current population. Introducing a new population will only exacerbate an already pressurised system. Many school students are already bussed to Boston Spa and Tadcaster so that the local area can cope. Issue: Local services Issue: Greenbelt Parlington is currently Green Belt land, serving an important function in ensuring the city and its smaller communities do not merge with consequent loss of greenfield land. Parlington is a particularly important due to it containing Grade A agricultural farm land, a designated site of Special Environmental and Geological Interest (SEGI) and being an integral part of the magnesian limestone green infrastructure corridor as defined by Natural England and incorporated within Leeds City Councils’ Adopted Core Strategy. The proposal to insert a new town a few hundred metres from our village, is a gateway for future encroachment and the vehicle for the merging of Barwick, Aberford and Garforth. The draft SAP seems to indicate that the loss of Parlington as part of the Green Belt will be replaced by land to the east of Wetherby currently locally designated as 'rural land'. Surely any sequential test would propose brownfield, then greenfield (rural land) before Green Belt? Issue: Conservation and heritage The parlington estate has a historical importance, not least the triumphal arch, the grounds of the ancestral home of the Gascoigne family. Not to mention the ancient uses yet to be discovered. This development would result in the loss of virtually all the designed landscape associated with the former Parlington Hall, the family home of the Gascoyne’s before they moved to Lotherton Hall. This landscape, which, itself, is a non-designated heritage asset, provides a setting and context for a large number of designated and other non- designated heritage assets associated with the Parlington Estate. The designated heritage assets include, within the proposed site:- • The Triumphal Arch (Grade II*) - a unique commemoration of the American War of Independence • The House at Parlington Gardens (Grade II) • Park House Farmhouse (Grade II) • Hookmoor Lodges (Grade II) and, outside, the boundary of the new settlement:- • The Shelter (Grade II) • The Cottage (Grade II) • Gascoigne Almshouses (Grade II*) • The Lodge to Gascoigne Almshouses (Grade II) • The retaining walls to Gascoigne Almshouses (Grade II) • Pikes Head Lodge (Grade II) Issue: Ecology/Landscape/Trees The area that has been allocated contains ancient woodland home to many birds including owls and red kites. The latter of which is endangered. The red kite is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under the Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is an offence to take, injure or kill a red kite or to take, damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young. It is also an offence to intentionally or recklessly disturb the birds close to their nest during the breeding season. Violation of the law can attract fines up to £5,000 per offence and/or a prison sentence of up to six months. Legal compliance Consider the plan legally compliant? Don't know Legal compliance issues addressed: Local Development. Scheme Statement of community involvement Duty to co-operate Consultation of statutory bodies Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act Sustainability appraisal Town and Country Planning Regs Comments on legal compliance: n/a Future updates Take part in public examination? Be informed of submission to examination? Be informed of adoption of the plan? Submitter details Agent details Ref PDP10280 Ref Title Mr Title Forename Peter Forename Surname Hurst Surname Address 1 26 Flats Lane Address 1 Address 2 Barwick In Elmet Address 2 Address 3 Address 3 Town Leeds Town PostCode LS15 4LL PostCode.