Hebden Bridge flats plan unsuitable for former mills – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE proposal to convert Linden Mill in Hebden Bridge from Arts Mill studios to flats (The Yorkshire Post, August 9) highlights how the pressure on councils to approve planning applications for homes is causing planning officers to recommend unsuitable developments.

Local people are against this proposal – there have been 72 objectors and only three letters of support. Your article mentions some of the objections, but not the overriding reason why this application should be refused.

The mill sits in a corner of several streets of terraced housing without gardens. Many of the houses are occupied by families with young children. These streets are effectively play streets for these children. There are also a large number of cats in the neighbourhood who patrol the streets with little road sense.

These streets are cobbled, and the one leading directly to the mill, Linden Road, is in a poor state of repair, as is its pavement.

It is not suitable for the heavy vehicles that would be involved with construction work. As these flats are likely to be occupied by single, and probably young, people, it can be assumed that they will have many deliveries by white vans, grocery delivery vans and take-away home firms.

Far too many such vehicles are driven at speeds excessive for the conditions, not least because of the pressure these drivers are under. There is too high a risk that all this traffic, during construction and thereafter, will lead to a tragic accident, with a child being injured or killed.

I wonder if the councillors who will be considering this application have visited the area? They certainly need to.

This development will irrevocably cha