EcoHolmes seek planning approval for truly affordable, low-energy homes in the Holme Valley
The prospect of helping people live where they grew up, in decent homes they can afford, got nearer today as Kirklees’s first Community Led Housing Trust submitted a planning application for ten rented homes in the Holme Valley.
EcoHolmes is a locally based housing charity whose vision is to build homes for local people that they can truly afford, are cheap to run and are fit for the future. “We are faced in the Valley, as elsewhere, with more and more faceless developments of large unaffordable homes, with local families being forced out of their own neighbourhoods by ever-increasing high prices and rents. As a concerned group of volunteers, we see this as a way of trying to tackle that growing problem and to build what people actually need”, says Chairman of EcoHolmes, Stephen Sheard.
A planning application has been submitted to use the Chippings site on the edge of Scholes village to build ten homes at rents local people can properly afford. The homes will be built to high quality, low-energy standards, modelling how future homes should be constructed. This is a small-scale scheme which will be in a pleasant environment with as much shared space on the site as possible. The outline proposals reflect the ideas that were suggested in the community consultation during last summer. They also seek to address concerns and issues raised by local residents in more recent consultations and discussions.
The site is a former quarry and is owned by the Holme Valley Land Charity who wish it to be used for a good social purpose. The homes will be kept in community ownership and remain affordable and available to local people in perpetuity.
More affordable homes and a more sustainable approach to local developments is at the heart of the recently approved Holme Valley Neighbourhood Plan. Evidence from surveys show that around 80% of people believe that homes being built should be within the price range of local people who otherwise are forced to move away.
The application (for Land Adjacent, 67, Chapelgate, Scholes, Holmfirth, HD9 1SX) will shortly be on the Planning portal (search for planning applications through www.kirklees.gov.uk) and can be examined and comments are welcomed as part of the public consultation. Please let the planning authority know what you think of the proposals.
Anyone wanting to learn more about EcoHolmes or the Land Charity – both have websites: www.ecoholmes.org.uk and www.holmevalleylandcharity.org.uk. or email info@ecoholmes.org.uk. EcoHolmes is the first Community Land Trust operating in Kirklees and is part of a growing national network of nearly 500 CLTs.
