New bid to build 190 houses on old quarry site in Knottingley

A fresh attempt will be made to build homes on an old quarry and industrial waste site - an issue that has rumbled on for more than 12 years.
No go: Coun Graham Stokes feels the site should be left alone.No go: Coun Graham Stokes feels the site should be left alone.
No go: Coun Graham Stokes feels the site should be left alone.

Another application has been submitted to remediate the site of Jackson’s Quarry in Knottingley and prepare the land for 190 new homes.

Approval was granted for the homes back in 2006, but the company behind the development went into receivership three years later following the recession.

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Despite a second attempted to build in 2013, the land off Womersley Road remains vacant.

Last year, developers D Noble Ltd were ordered to stop digging up the land at the former quarry because of potential health risks.

A planning report from 2013 said the old quarry was land-filled with domestic, commercial and industrial waste in the 1960s and 1970s.

The site, which used to be an industrial tip for construction waste, limeworks and glassworks, was abandoned in 1993-1994.

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D Noble Ltd bought the land last year and submitted plans earlier this year for 165 homes but have recently submitted a further application, increasing the number of properties proposed and adding two shopping units.

However, Knottingley ward councillor, Graham Stokes, feels the site should be left alone, with concerns raised about the waste beneath and potential access problems.

He said: “I think there’s a bit a bit of opposition. It sounds like Noble wants to put a clay lining underneath, but people are worried it wouldn’t be enough.

“Everyone thought it would never happen because it would cost to much to remediate.

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“There’s never been any other suggestions of what could be done with the site because it’s down in a quarry. In my view they should just leave it as it is. It’s been like that for a long time and it’s not somewhere people go to.”