Quote ="Tigerade"“As leader of the Council I would draw attention to the nearby Aire Valley Leeds Regeneration Scheme. This is well established as a regional regeneration priority providing significant opportunities for the sort of development that might otherwise be attracted to the Newmarket Lane site. Unlike Newmarket Lane the site is not in the green belt and has had substantial public investment in major highway infrastructure to open it up for development. More recently it has been selected by the LEP as an enterprise zone for the city region; every effort should be made to ensure the success of the enterprise zone for the wider benefit of the city region rather than unnecessarily releasing more green belt land for development only a few miles away along the motorway network”
Store wars, land wars, different sites to develop.
Sounds familiar?'"
Oh yes, hypocrisy is rife at all levels here... and Mr Wakefield is quite good at it.
Firstly, we have the arena wars between Leeds and Sheffield - Sheffield should keep it's nose out of our planning system. Obviously, we can stick our noses into Wakefield planning system... that is different!
Secondly, lets ask Mr Wakefield why Leeds City Council Executive committee, chaired by him, approved the inclusion of the proposed Newmarket Community Sports facilities as a training venue, (linked to Oulton Hall hotel for the accommodation) for the 2018 FIFA World Cup host city bid, in which they were successful. So had England secured the World Cup last year, would he still of changed his mind and objected to a scheme he supported???
Thirdly, it would seem that three years ago, when the Wakefield LDF core strategy included 95ha of B8 development land on the M62 corridor that he and Leeds CC were so concerned about the potential impact of the Aire Valley they did.... nothing, no objection, nothing!
Fourth, he is saying that Newmarket will impact on the Leeds City region and the Aire Valley should be given the priority, so what do you call all those massive tax and financial incentive LCC have just got from central government? Also, why do the actual Leeds City Region partnership, on which Leeds are represented, disagree with him and have stated that both the Aire Valley and the 95ha of land in WAKEFIELD (NOT LEEDS!) are required to meet the economic growth required for the region. It seems that one half of LCC doesn't know what the other half is doing!
Of course, it could be just that Mr Wakefield is a Methley councillor and he gives more of a stuff about keeping his own position as a councillor than the thousands of jobs both sites will generate?
