Fantastic landscape with great potential say site developers

People were turned away as more than 300 residents piled into Menston Infant School to hear the future of High Royds Hospital last Wednesday.

The villagers were given a rare opportunity to meet and discuss the planning issues with London-based developer the Raven Group, who have bought it for £26million.

Developer Ben Krauze told the meeting that the plans were not 'set in stone' and he was ready to listen to their comments.

"High Royds is a very exciting site and we feel we have the right expertise and vision to do justice to such an important group of buildings," he said.

"We first became interested in High Royds three years ago and we started work on it eight months ago.

"We very rarely get the opportunity to work with such an exciting piece of landscape and we firmly believe that we will be able to create a fantastic place."

"It is a fantastic landscape and has great potential. It will generate traffic but we have taken extraordinary steps to reduce this."

Leeds City Council is expecting to receive the official planning application in March and it could be dealt with in 13 weeks due to new government targets.

The project is expected to take five years.

Leeds City Council planner Paul Gough said: "The impending closure presents a number of exciting challenges it has been an important landmark for many years and is of historic importance.

"Only 23 hectares of the 82 hectares will be able to be developed. We recognise that there are several buildings of architectural merit but the ones built in the 50s and 60s can be demolished.

"Our key aim in the Leeds City Council planning department is to make sure overall development does not have a greater visible impact on the existing area.

"We want a general mix of use for the area to ensure it doesn't become a commuter village.

"They must minimise the harmful effect on the community and on local residents and take account of any local developments' effect on the highways specifically the A65."

A public meeting will be held for Guiseley residents at Guiseley School on Thursday, February 27 (7.30pm).

The proposal is to create more than 500 homes on the grounds of the Victorian mental institute some inside the listed buildings and the rest in newly created structures.

The conversion of the listed buildings will create 214 homes consisting of one to four bedroom flats and two to five bedroom houses.

The new houses will consist of 262 dwellings, 54 one to two bedroom flats, 18 two bedroom houses, 50 three bedroom houses, 105 four bedroom houses and 35 five bedroom houses.

There will be 114 affordable homes, consisting of 60 one bedroom flats and 54 two bedroom flats..

Ten homes will be created for elderly residents to rent with 125 year leases so they can be passed on to relatives.

The main hospital clock tower and grand entrance hall will be used for health care and the Raven Group is already in discussions with two nursing home operators and private hospital groups.

It will be looking at providing a 60-bed unit and Mr Krauze said it was possible a new doctor's surgery would also be created.

"I have spoken to the local doctors and they are already planning to take on a new partner," he said.

"They have an over capacity in the local surgeries and a new partner would take on 1,950 patients. High Royds will generate 1,700 people so the doctors are keen to open a surgery on the site and this should reduce car movements."

It is proposed to transform the kitchen and workshops into 75,000 square feet of office blocks, which will be split into 2,000 to 5,000 square feet offices which can accommodate 10 to 12 employees.

It is hoped that this will encourage people to live and work on the site and therefore reduce the use of cars.

Mr Krauze said: "People running their own businesses living on the site will be able to take out a mortgage and run an office there.

"This should help reduce car move-ments on the site. So will the nursery we want to put in at the rear of the main entrance.

"In the evening when the old hall is not being used it will be made available to community groups in Menston and Guiseley and can be used by amateur dramatic groups because it has a theatre.

"We wanted to put a small shop on the site but that is up in the air. There will be a private bus service taking people into Menston and Guiseley past the shops so people can stop off to use the village shops, so there may be no need for one."

Traffic is a major issue and it has been suggested that Guiseley Drive and High Royds Drive will be the main exits from the site onto the A65.

It has been mooted that High Royds Drive may be restricted to buses and would have traffic lights, but it has not been decided whether or not to signal Guiseley Drive.

Menston Drive, which leads to Bingley Road, will only be available to buses, cyclists and emergency vehicles and the barrier will remain across the road.

The developer has vowed to look carefully at the junction of Bingley Road and Menston Drive.

Highways engineer Mike Speermain said: "We will signalise the access on High Royds Drive which will be used by buses and Guiseley Drive may or may not by signalised. If we do that it will have to be looked at ensuring that it doesn't delay the A65 traffic.

"The entrance to Bingley Road is unsafe and it is something we will be addressing.

"The main problems will be the White Cross roundabout and the Hare and Hounds crossroads.

"We want to improve on that and we are looking at different ways of minimising traffic from the site. First we are trying to reduce the need to travel at all and introducing replacement transport.

"We are offering homes and employ-ment to encourage people to live and work here and a school to stop the school run. If people do have to travel then we will provide a free shuttle bus to the railway station at peak times."

New residents and businesses will be given free Metro passes in the first year and it is hoped that an extra train carriage will be added to peak time trains to create 30 per cent more space and their frequency will be doubled.

But Graham Hall, of Farnley Road, believes the parking at the station will be overflowing and said that residents already have a job finding parking without additional traffic on the road.

Mr Speermain added: "We are not encouraging people to drive to the station and it is virtually a walk away so there should not be any traffic parked there."

He claims that the traffic generated will be less than when the hospital was in its heyday.

"I have been involved with this since 1994 when it had 300 beds and 500 staff which generated 300 vehicles at peak times," he said.

"In its heyday it had 2,300 beds with 3,000 staff and would have had 3,000 vehicle movements an hour, so we are looking at it compared to its existing usage.

"We believe there will be less that 600 movements an hour."

Residents suggested different options to handle the traffic from an underpass to feed the A65 lower down to an exit at the White Cross roundabout, but Leeds highways department said that was totally out of the question due to the increased traffic problems it would cause.

Ian Hill, of Bingley Road, asked what improvements the developer was considering making to the junctions, especially at the Hare and Hounds, but he was told that no specific details had yet been decided.

Mike Darwin, Leeds City Council's Chief Engineer, said: "At the moment the lights are not in sequence on the A65.

"We are looking at resolving that but it will mean an increased capacity of traffic on the road."

Mr Speermain agreed to consider Graham Hawkins' suggestion of a separate route into Menston.

SPORTS clubs will benefit from two new football pitches and changing rooms.

The developer is hoping that the new facilities will give local clubs the chance to move up the league.

Mr Krauze said: "We will retain the old sports and social club and build a new one between the two new football pitches with verandas.

"It will have a bar for 150 people and there will be changing rooms which will be administered by St Mary's School. The facilities will be available for anyone wanting to use them in the evenings and weekend."

The site will be revamped for community use with the reopening of the railway tunnel under the A65 so horse riders, cyclists and walkers will be able to access the Chevin.

In total five kilometres of public footpaths will be created.

A lake will be formed at the entrance to Guiseley Drive, which will attract wildlife and help to reduce flooding at Myre Beck.

Resident Sharon Howell, of Glen Mount, expressed concerns that drainage from the site floods gardens in the area and asked the developers to look at this.

It is already proposed to create a water recycling facility in the grounds using a steam generator to provide heat and power and the developer is hoping to connect it to the National Grid.

It is hoped to bring wildlife such as Cray fish and water voles back to Myre Beck and the popular Bluebells will be protected.

Environmentalists have surveyed 2,000 trees on the site which they will be protecting.

Environmental planner and landscape architect Nigel Rockcliffe said: "We will be removing the bleak tarmac areas and replacing it with landscape, a courtyard and communal gardens.

"We will be reinstating the airing courts, which were enclosed courts where patients would have exercised.

"This is a unique opportunity to breath new life into the landscape."

Resident suggested creating a play area on the site but this was rejected by council planners because it would attract anti-social behaviour but the developer agreed to look at revamping the park on Bingley Road.