Dear Bradford Council planning department
An open letter from the Ilkley Civic Society re: Planning App 24/04213/MAF Ilkley Grammar School rebuilding
Dear Bradford Council planning department,
Re: Planning App 24/04213/MAF Ilkley Grammar School rebuilding …
The Ilkley Civic Society, while being supportive of the principles of rebuilding the dated and energy inefficient mid-20th century school buildings at Ilkley Grammar School, has some concerns over a number of issues.
In particular, traffic management around the school when the works take place over the next four years because the current school car parks will be used for other purposes and large numbers of contractors’ vehicles for operatives and material supplies will need both parking spaces and clear routes to the site.
Our suggestions for temporary TRO’s (traffic regulation orders) for traffic management, being applied as conditions to the grant of planning, are as follows:
On Cowpasture Road, including potentially removing the road humps to reduce vibration to premises from so many large construction vehicles
Temporary TRO’s at the junction of Wheatley Road/Bolling Road and Springs Lane need careful consideration to manage site vehicle flow
A ban on all HGV’s using The Grove
Additional temporary residents parking only on some local streets Springfield Avenue and Wharfedale Drive at the very least
An offsite holding area for HGV’s should be available to avoid queuing of contractors’ delivery vehicles near the site
The Bradford Council Highways officer recommended that “due to the likely displacement of parking onto the highway the suggested HGV route should have temporary TRO promoted to try and mitigate against the expected traffic issues during the construction of the school”.
Not covering all the issues raised by The Ilkley Civic Society, but nevertheless this would have improved what we believe will be a major construction project that will cause considerable inconvenience at the least, on roads around the site.
It was therefore disappointing to see the grant of planning not include any of these suggestions for “parking” or “construction vehicle access”. The decision notice even suggested that should street parking not suffice, adequate capacity existed in pay and display car parks in the town!
The council decision suggests a “small uplift in the number of vehicles parked on unrestricted roads surrounding the site”. We suggest that even with the relatively small-scale works that are already progressing on site during the current school holidays car parking at the bottom end of Wheatley Road has become common on both sides and somewhat congested.
There is still time to introduce measures that will assist all concerned, local residents, school traffic and the contractors as well as reducing the risk of damage to the environment due to congestion.
We look forward to a response to the town of Ilkley from Bradford Council.
Yours sincerely,
David Blackburn
Executive committee member, Ilkley Civic Society
Copies to Ilkley Grammar School, district councillors, Ilkley Town Council, Ilkley Gazette, Ilkley Chat, Ilkley Journal and MP Robbie Moore.
Copies of our full comments to the planning application can be found on our website
Copies of the grant of planning decision notice can be found on Bradford Council planning website for application no 24/04213/MAF.