This is the National Planning Policy Framework. It sets out the framework under which local planners should operate. It replaces a lot of Planning Policy Guidance documents, not always in a way that benefits residents over developers. But there’s one thing it does agree on with one of its predecessors, PPG17, and that’s how the provision of playing fields should look. From para 74:

Existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless:

• an assessment has been undertaken which has clearly shown the open space, buildings or land to be surplus to requirements; or
• the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location; or
• the development is for alternative sports and recreational provision, the needs for which clearly outweigh the loss.

Let’s take these one by one.

“an assessment has been undertaken which has clearly shown the open space, buildings or land to be surplus to requirements”

No such assessment has been undertaken. Not one we can find, anyway.

“the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location”

Leeds City Council plans provision of new playing fields at Whinmoor Grange. Are they in a suitable location? In fact, they’re not even in the same ward as Red Hall Playing Fields. Just read that again: we have a deficiency of green space (section 6.1) in Crossgates and Whinmoor, and Leeds City Council plan to reduce it further and put it in the Harewood ward.

Here’s a set of pedestrian isochrones, produced to provide planning permission for the houses adjacent to the fields at the south. They clearly show that it’s over half an hour’s walk to the proposed successor amenity. Assuming, that is, that you think that playing your football next to a cemetery is a superior experience to playing it next to a 17th century listed building that also happens to house the Rugby Football League.

the development is for alternative sports and recreational provision, the needs for which clearly outweigh the loss.

The proposed development is not for sports or recreational provision – it simply removes most of the fields in favour of housing and a noisy, polluting road.

Leeds City Council have technically asked people about this, but very few people know. They’ve simply changed the designation of the land from “Business Park” to “Housing” in line with national policy changes. Never mind whether anyone’s made plans for their entire lives based around the supposition that this area would be busy in the day but quieter for children to play in the evenings; no, it’s just been changed, with about as little consultation as you could technically get away with.

Did you know there was a public consultation during June and July this year which included Red Hall Playing Fields (and other sites within the whole of Leeds) in the “suitable for future development” list? Were you aware this was one of your only opportunities to object to the fire sale of green space?

This consultation was run by Leeds City Council and formed part of the Site Allocations Plan – it is an audit to identify sites that are suitable for development for the next 15 years.

Most people (if not all local residents) were unaware that they could have a say. In fact, just thirteen people within Crossgates and Whinmoor ward commented.

However, you can still write to your local councillors and ask them to remove the playing fields from this list. It is your only walkable green space amenity and forms part of the local history.

The Site Allocations Plan will be formally published for consultation next year so be prepared!

Your local councillors’ emails are shown below. Write to them. As our elected representatives, they have a duty to explain why they are taking our green space, and why the consultation was so under-publicised:

• peter.gruen@leeds.gov.uk
• pauleen.grahame@leeds.gov.uk
• debra.coupar@leeds.gov.uk

References

1. Summary of sites in East Leeds suitable for development
2. Site Assessments (search for 2062 to find the assessment for the Red Hall Playing Fields)
3. East Leeds Green Space statistics
4. Maps of the area

We’re on the lookout for pictures of your treasured memories on Red Hall playing fields for our Gallery. They’ve been part of the community for such a long time, we feel sure you’ve got one or two in a drawer somewhere you could scan and send to us, perhaps with a little info as to when they were taken and who is in them.

If we want these fields to stay, we need to show how strongly we feel about them!

If you have any photos that you’d like to display here, please email them to photos@redhallplayingfields.org.uk

History of the fields

Red Hall playing fields have been a place for sport and recreation for local people for over 75 years.

The fields are one of the most attractive pieces of open park land within the city. Next door to them lies Red Hall House, a listed 17th century house, one of the oldest buildings within the Leeds metropolitan area.

For many years the fields were used for organised sports.

In the last five years the Council have stopped maintaining the drainage of the fields and organised football matches are no longer played.

However, many other people use this site for recreation. Dog-walking, community fitness groups, kite-flying, bird-watching, safe unsupervised childrens’ play are just some of the uses to which the land is put.

So what’s going to happen to the fields?

The Council has announced¹ that this attractive and popular green space will be sacrificed for building houses and a section of dual carriageway².

Dog walkers from the neighbourhood will have to drive several miles for their daily walk, and children will no longer have the freedom to play out that the fields provide. For the local community, this is the only walkable amenity of any description.

There is already a shortage of accessible green space in Crossgates and Whinmoor³.

This is a precious and much-loved amenity on which generations of people, young and old, have enjoyed sport and recreation. With 2000 homes about to be built just across the road⁴, a space of this size in this location is needed more than ever before.