Houses for Vickers tank factory site in Leeds too 'boring'

The application for more than 400 homes on the site has been deferred

Developers wanting to build more than 400 homes on a former tank factory in Leeds have been told their plans are too boring to be approved.

Redrow Homes and Strata Homes submitted plans to Leeds City Council to build 437 homes on the site of the former Vickers works.

The site is on Radial Park, Manston Lane, in the east of the city.

Members of the council's city plans panel called it "bland" and "boring" and opted to defer the application.

One councillor, Elizabeth Nash said: "I was horrified at the blandness.

"Brick is boring, but the stone houses on here are even worse. I would like to see more features on the houses."

Councillor Colin Campbell said: "It's a boring development. It's a boring layout."

The plans feature one, two and three storey buildings, new roads and green space.

The site also includes affordable housing - something that had been absent on an earlier application, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

There was also criticism of the lack of houses accessible for those with disabilities.

Leeds and its ordnance factories

The Challenger tank was built on the Vickers site

• National Filling Factory No 1, or Barnbow, covered 300 acres when it opened in 1915 during World War One

• Its workforce peaked at 16,000 in October 1916

• The Royal Ordnance Factory then produced munitions during World War Two near the original site

• Taken over by Vickers, the factory started to produce Challenger tanks in 1986

• The factory finally closed in 1999.

Source: Leeds City Council and Vickers

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