Consultation period extended for major new housing development in Darfield

Two ouncillors who represent the area argued that a cut-off date at the end of September did not give residents time to fully digest details of what is a large and complex planning application.

Planning chiefs at Barnsley Council agreed, with Councillors Pauline Markham and Kevin Osborne and will now take submissions until the middle of October, though the cut-off date on official document will stay unchanged.

Builders Saul Homes and Keepmoat Homes want to put houses on a large greenfield site off Doncaster Road.

Their intentions were announced earlier in the summer and large numbers of people attended a meeting they set up, voicing wide-ranging concerns about the proposals, from loss of green space to the impact on traffic and additional strain on infrastructure like doctors’ surgeries and schools.

Now Saul Homes and Keepmoat Homes have formally put their plans in to Barnsley Council and it is expected, for such a large development, the decision on whether or not to accept the proposals will be made by councillors on the authority’s planning board.

They will be given detailed information and recommendation from professional planning officers before they meet.

The application follows the format originally suggested, a ‘hybrid’ scheme, with detailed plans which would see work on 260 homes at one side of the site be cleared for work as soon as builders wanted to proceed.

The second phase would be granted on an ‘outline’ basis, clearing the way for housing, but still needing details of the exact number of homes, their design and the layout of the estate all to be decided later.

It is anticipated that development would see around 200 more homes created.

Original proposals have been reworked in some areas, as the developers have answered concerns raised at their meeting with residents.

They have consulted council highways experts and redrawn access from Doncaster Road, ensured that hedgerows on Doncaster Road will be kept and have done more more around an area of trees on the site, with a promise that further tree planting will be ‘considered’.

The land was earmarked for housing under Barnsley Council’s Local Plan.