A WORRIED mum is set to resume her battle to block a house being built on her quiet Holmfirth street.
In early 2007, Karen Formby was featured in the Express & Chronicle urging councillors to reject plans to build a property in the grounds of the Engine House, a Victorian railway building on Station Road.
Residents feared that the access route and building work would endanger the lives of the 30 local children that played on Summervale, a narrow residential cul-de-sac.
A petition was submitted and some of the children wrote to the council themselves, claiming they would not feel safe in their own street as the angle of the driveway would make it inevitable that someone would get injured.
The application was later withdrawn.
With news that revised plans for a three storey house with a ‘pool’ are being considered by Kirklees planners, mother-of-three Mrs Formby has set the wheels in motion for a revived protest.
Speaking to the Express & Chronicle she said the new plan still gave her cause for concern.
“There’s no pavements along Summervale,” she said, “the Engine House has access from Station Road, but when these houses were built there was a mistake with planning so there’s no pavements.
“And the access will be at the narrowest part,” she added.
Mrs Formby also claimed there was a possibility of the site being contaminated by waste and asbestos, despite the grounds being given the all clear in an environmental pre-planning report.
With further concerns about the excavation of the site, Mrs Formby, is now hoping to garner more support and submit another petition to the council.
“Planning have concerns,” she said, “and Clr Nigel Patrick is going to object on grounds of access and safety.
“I’d rather nothing was built but I’m not opposed to a smaller house and I’d prefer access was on Station Road away from where the children play.”
A spokeswoman for Kirklees Council’s planning department said there had been no councillors objecting to the plan so far and so the application was still due to be processed by planning officers.
Clr Patrick was not available for comment.
