Plan to change type of houses on new 66-home development at former Pontefract colliery is rejected

Last year permission was granted for 66 homes on the former Prince of Wales colliery site.

The developer has since requested permission to alter the house types of 29 of the 66 homes.

But Wakefield Council planning officers said the changes would affect 44 per cent of the plots and could not be considered a superficial change to the plans.

A case officer planning report said the changes would “introduce two new house types not previously assessed, change the layout and mix of units on the site and directly impact on conditions attached to the original permission, and is not considered to represent a non-material change to the approved scheme”.

The report said an application for a minor material change should be submitted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 whereby which officers could properly assess the changes.

The site is 2.4 acres on land by De Lacy Way and was initially supposed to consist of two, three and four bedroom, two and two and half storey dwellings.

The homes would mostly be detached and semi-detached, other than three small clusters of terraced properties.

Work began on redeveloping the former Prince of Wales Colliery site in 2013.

The pit itself closed in 2002 with the loss of 500 jobs.

A case report by Wakefield Council at the time the initial plans were approved said: “The development would take access off an existing point of access and the site is located within close proximity to local public transport.

"The detailed design and layout of the scheme would result in a high standard of housing environment by virtue of the proposed layout, scale, design and landscaping that would protect the amenity of existing residents in accordance with the policy and guidance discussed in the above report.

"A number of matters would need to be secured by planning conditions and a planning obligation as set out in the report, and subject to this the proposed development is considered to be acceptable in principle and, there are considered to be no technical reasons to withhold planning permission."

The colliery was a drift mine, initially founded in 1880, until its closure in 2002.