We are raising £4,000 to commission an independent chartered planning consultant to visit the site, scrutinise the developer’s evidence and help put our community’s case in proper planning terms. Here is how to donate — a bank transfer takes a minute in your banking app.
Bellway’s planning consultants have replied to all twenty-four of our questions. The headline is a number they had never given: the technical work for any application is expected to assess up to 180 dwellings, and the earlier figures of 200 and around 225 “should not be treated as the current assessment basis”.
They also confirm the Board 6 benefit figures were calculated on 225 and “will need to be updated”. The full set of answers is on the proposal page, in their words.
After we asked, Bellway have confirmed the closing date for comments in writing. It is Thursday 10 September — the “Friday 10 September” reported in the press was an error, and comments submitted now are still being accepted.
With the published deadline pointing at a day that does not exist and the developer’s own page giving no date at all, the group wrote to Bellway’s planning consultants asking them to confirm the closing date and whether comments sent now were still being accepted. They answered the next day.
The same letter asks when we might expect the written response to our twenty-four questions, and when their client intends to submit an application.
The Barnsley Chronicle reported growing support for the campaign, and carried Bellway’s first public comment on the scheme. In it the developer said: “Friends of Kingstone Green Belt submitted a detailed series of questions following the event and we will provide a written response to the group addressing their questions.”
They also said a Statement of Community Involvement accompanying any application will summarise the consultation and how feedback has influenced the proposals. We have asked that our questions and their answers appear in it, and we will publish the response when it arrives.
Representatives of the group met Barnsley Council’s Head of Planning to understand how a proposal of this kind is handled, what the council can and cannot say before an application is submitted, and how residents’ comments are taken into account.
It was a constructive meeting and we are grateful for the time given. Our Member of Parliament has also now replied to the group.
Following the exhibition, the group has sent twenty-four written questions to Johnson Mowat, Bellway’s planning consultants — on the number and mix of homes, how the affordable housing would be provided and secured, what the sums offered towards local services were calculated on, what happens to the public right of way, and which of their two stated timetables is the real one.
We have asked for a written reply. We will publish what comes back — and say so plainly if nothing does.
Bellway’s public exhibition at Shaw Lane Sports Club drew 98 people across three hours, by our count — there was no sign-in sheet. Bellway Strategic Land, their planning consultants, their highways consultant and their architect all took questions.
Full report on the proposal page.
Through July, campaign volunteers delivered two thousand leaflets door to door across Kingstone — from Kingstone Grange to Water Royd, Racecommon Road and the streets between. The print run was paid for entirely by donations to the campaign fund.
If a leaflet brought you here: welcome. You can join the campaign, or simply keep in touch, on the Get involved page.
Barnsley’s Planning Regulatory Board has refused permission for a large solar farm on Green Belt land at Grimethorpe — going against the planning officers’ recommendation to approve. The decision was reported in the Barnsley Chronicle.
It is a reminder of how the system works: Green Belt applications in Barnsley are decided case by case, in public, by elected councillors — and community voices are part of that process. The developer has since appealed. The Planning Inspectorate has not yet decided, and we are following it closely — whichever way it goes, it will tell us a great deal about how Green Belt cases are being judged in this borough.
The Barnsley Chronicle has published a full-column piece on Friends of Kingstone Green Belt and the proposed Bellway development, written by Jack Tolson. The article sets out the campaign's formation, the Green Belt designation of the site, the cumulative position across the corridor, and the group's intention to engage constructively with the planning process when an application is submitted.
Bellway declined to comment. Matt O'Neill, BMBC's Executive Director for Growth and Sustainability, cited the government's national housing target in response.
The Barnsley Chronicle reports that safeguarded land is being eyed by developers. Friends of Kingstone Green Belt is formed by local residents.
Paid for by donations, delivered by volunteers, so that people heard about this from their neighbours rather than from a letterbox drop by the developer.
Johnson Mowat, acting for Bellway Strategic Land, announce an intention to submit an outline planning application and leaflet around 350 properties.
Bellway’s public exhibition. We counted 98 people through the doors across three hours; Bellway estimate around 150. There was no sign-in sheet, so both are estimates.
We put twenty-four questions to Bellway’s planning consultants covering the number of homes, the affordable housing, the benefit figures and the timetable — and said we would publish whatever came back.
To understand how a proposal of this kind is handled, and how residents’ comments are taken into account. Our MP has also replied to the group.
A full written reply. Up to 180 homes; the exhibition benefit figures conceded to be illustrative and calculated on 225; no fixed submission date. Read the answers.
Bellway’s own consultation closed. The next milestone is the planning application itself — and that is when objections count.
We start raising £4,000 for an independent chartered planning consultant. How to donate.
We’re raising £4,000 for an independent chartered planning consultant. Suggested donation £30 — every amount helps.
