I feel this is not the place to house some 400 goats and the industrial units, let alone the excess traffic this project will bring to the area. The foul smells are extremely pungent, even more so than the pig farm further up the road at Hall Green.
We have many visitors to Newmillerdam, and the Fox and Hounds' customers parking on School Hill caused parking to be nearly impossible for residents and their own visitors.
Continuing with this project will not only cause a greater volume of traffic in the area, it will also make the roads more dangerous for residents. There are already great concerns with traffic speeding on School Hill and the bend is extremely dangerous.
Over the years, there have been requests for speed cameras and speed humps to be introduced after incidents, even to the extent of having to involve the police and our local councillor. Nothing was done, as Wakefield Council did not find this to be a priority.
There is no doubt this project will bring with it much more traffic, along with a heavy volume of HGVs through the day, causing more obstructions and mayhem to what is seen by locals to be an extremely dangerous road with a seriously bad blackspot.
I find allowing a goat farm to be allowed to operate in this beautiful conservation area is well out of character. So many planning applications are turned down due to Newmillerdam being a conservation area.
This farm will not be in keeping with the area, as over the years the council has preserved Newmillerdam with the strictest of enforcements.
Surely this goat farm would be better placed nearer to a farm or in the countryside, where there are less vehicles, housing and residents?
We feel our local council is being totally irresponsible in even considering such an application of this nature, and letting the residents down.
This piece of land in question could be put to better use for local residents as a recreation ground.
Stuart George Spencer
School Hill, Newmillerdam