In May BAG and its planning consultant Allen Creedy met with the Leeds City Council planning officer, Adam Ward, to discuss our objection to the application, and to find out more about what the next steps are.

Adam explained that he and his colleagues are still working on the technical issues that they have raised with the applicants and their consultants, but we can still make further representations on the key areas we have identified – flooding and drainage, the schedule of repair and other works, and the appraisal of the Estate’s alternative financial and commercial options. We asked if it would be possible to meet with the relevant officers, which Adam stated would be their decision.

Allen has advised us to submit our additional objections in a logical planning oriented format which would encourage the officers to look closely into our arguments against the application, and meet with us, and we have agreed that this is the next stage.

We have since learned that the applicants are likely to submit their own further representations on the flood risk assessment, and other planning matters, probably because of comments that the Environment Agency and other consultees have made. Any additional submissions by the applicants will have to be reconsidered by all the relevant authorities.  It is clear now that the process is taking much longer than we anticipated, and the meeting of the NE Planning Panel to consider the application may not take place until the autumn.

However as soon as the officers report for that meeting is made public (usually about 3 weeks beforehand) we will know what the officers’ recommendation to the Panel is – accept or reject the application. If the former option, then we will have a major challenge to persuade the Panel to go against the recommendation.

Until this stage is reached we ask all our supporters to hang in there. We will keep you up to date as and when further news comes in. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us this far. This is far from over and we will no doubt be asking for your support again in the coming months.