Green light recommend for homes on former leatherworks

Plans to build hundreds of apartments on a former leatherworks site in Leeds are recommended for approval next week (25 April 2024).Option Two Development and Domus UK, supported by WYG, submitted plans to Leeds City Council in 2019 for the redevelopment of the Hilltop Works site on Buslingthorpe Lane in Chapeltown.The brownfield site is a former leatherworks, which has largely fallen into disuse since the 1960s.Planning permission is sought for the demolition of the existing buildings and construction of five multi-storey apartment blocks providing 371 homes. The tallest of the buildings would measure ten storeys.The scheme would comprise 132 one-bed, 198 two-bed and 41 three-bed apartments. of the units, 26 would be designated as affordable housing.The plans also include ancillary community facilities, a children’s play area, and public and private open spaces, as well as undercroft and surface car parking.Under the plans, the Hilltop Works mill building and the cottages at the western end of the site would be demolished, with the e stone wall along Buslingthorpe Lane and landmark chimney structure retained.The application will go before the council’s North and East Plans Panel on 25 April and is recommended for approval, subject to conditions and the signing of a legal agreement, in an officer’s report prepared for the meeting.The report highlighted benefits of the development, including the “regeneration of a largely derelict site that has lain vacant and underutilised for a significant period of time” and a “significant contribution to housing supply within the city”.It said outweighed the loss of historic assets and the alteration of the character of the conservation area.