By Ninder Kaur
Detailed plans sent to residents on Flockton Road/Brompton Avenue for a new 30 home housing estate in East Bowling have been submitted for planning approval by Bradford Council, despite a petition being made.
Flockton House on Flockton Road, which is currently a council owned building for children services, will close and staff based there are to move to a more accessible site in the city centre.
The outline plans are for a mix of two and three bedroom semi-detached homes. Demolition is due to begin in January early next year where the council hopes to sell the site, with the outline planning permission in place.
In a design sent to residents with the planning application it states that: “As the property has been converted from a school to offices the layouts do not meet modern day standards for offices. The cost of conversion to upgrade would be more than the value at the end. It is therefore considered that the building has reached the end of its economic life.”
Although Flockton House, which was previously Bolling High School for Girls in the 20th century, is already regarded as a very imposing site with a mix of one, two and three storeys, it has angered a number of residents who are extremely outraged about the new development which will replace the run down building.
Pritpal Kaur, Sales Assistant said: “I understand the building will be torn down but the real problem is, is that the entrance to the estate will be made on my road. It is already a narrow road and with cars being parked on both sides of the road there will be more traffic in the area.”
Many have wrote back to David Ward (Lib Dem), who represents the area, expressing their concern about how the building, which has required hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of refurbishment, has now been a waste of money and in no need of being demolished.
The worries that residents fear in particular about the new estate are the noise complaints they may receive, congestion problems, limited car parking spacing and their own houses being overlooked. “With the entrance being built on our street, it is going to be manic around here. With events being held at the Museum, there already is a mad rush of traffic, so imagine 60 more cars. The council don’t do anything. Councillors have failed to take into account the impacts of increased traffic flow on the current congestion problems,” said van driver Carl Hope.
Bradford East MP David Ward said “The local infrastructure still requires a lot more work and expenses. He also said the new housing estate “I wanted to make sure residents were aware of the Council’s plan for the area. This is a landmark building and the swimming pool is clearly important to local people. I have written to about 500 families. The response was clear, local residents are against this plan. After the loss of the building car park is a big issue for local people I have written to the Director for Regeneration to see if they can bring forward a new plan that can re-use the building for housing rather than demolishing it.”
Manjit Kaur, 51, has ushered residents together to lodge their objections with the plan to allocate development space in the area for the new housing citing. “I wanted to take action. I wanted to let David Ward know that we are concerned about the plans being made in our area. We have not even been made aware of any meetings that may have taken place, so instead I wanted to round up the residents to express our disproval through the petition we have all signed.” Manjit has not yet received a response.
The real issue for the residents is that they fear that the new estate is going to be a ‘nightmare’- because there is going to be too much traffic congestion and limited car parking spaces available. Rupinder Gill, a Beautician from the area said “I am not happy that the building is being knocked down and is being replaced with a housing estate. There is going to be so much traffic in our area. We already have two local schools, a museum, a park and public swimming baths in the area and now there is going to be extra vehicles from new residents being added to the traffic flow.”
However Labour Clllr Ralph Berry, who works for the Children & Young People’s Services, was in favour of the move for the Children’s Services building, “The plan was always to move the children’s services together, this is a key part of saving money to protect front line staff in and get out of costly leased buildings like Future House.
The building is degraded and needs millions spent on it, it was patched up to keep it going while we worked to secure facilities that are accessible to the public, and Flockton is not.”
People living on Brompton Avenue and the surrounding streets say they have, for some time, been living with vehicles parking on pavements, across junctions and in front of residential homes when events take place at Bolling Hall Museum.
With the new 30 home housing estate being made, it could potentially bring in 60 more vehicles in the area making the parking issue in the area worse.
