Row over claim slope is 'too steep' for tree planting at business park in Mirfield

Moor Park 25 on Leeds Road is currently under construction and developers want to change some of the planning conditions about landscaping and screening.

One of the units – known as Unit 4 – towers above Leeds Road at the junction with Slipper Lane and developers have created a steep slope.

When planning permission was granted, developers were told to plant mature trees to screen the worst impact of the building.

But now the developer claims the slope is too steep to plant larger trees and wants to use saplings and shrubs instead.

Residents say the developers have already reduced the "buffer zone" around the site and are now demanding Kirklees Council sticks to the original planning conditions.

Variations in planning conditions are often handled by planning officers but such has been the outcry local councillor Martyn Bolt (Con, Mirfield) has asked that the issue be decided by councillors on the strategic planning committee.

The matter is on the agenda for a meeting on Thursday (August 26).

There are more than 70 comments from residents on the council’s website.

One says: “Unit 4 is a blot on the landscape and the types of trees to be planted will not hide this monstrosity.”

Someone else said: “After causing such an horrendous blot on our town by building these monstrosities, surely you should attempt to screen them as originally intended?”

Another added: “The buildings are a complete eyesore. Surely the land should have been dug out so that the monstrosities were sat a lot lower? What a disgrace Kirklees planning are.”

Another said: “How can anyone in planning now be trusted? The plans have gone from buildings having a 30 metre buffer and screening to now three metres and ‘shrubs’ to screen – which they never will. It’s such an eyesore.”