If i was a resident of Methley and Oulton i think i'd be more consurned about these latest devlopments that are for the land the other side of the newmarket site which has gone back up for sale!! than our plans.

[urlhttp://www.constructionnow.co.uk/index.asp?cat=news&period=thisweek#198072[/url

WEST YORKSHIRE ECO-TOWN SITE ON THE MARKET



The site of a proposed eco-town in West Yorkshire has been put on the market with a guide price of £4.65m, reports The Business Desk.

Property consultancy Knight Frank are marketing the 550 acres of prime agricultural land at Oulton for sale as a whole or in a number of different lots.

The land is part of the Oulton Hall Estate and was earmarked to be the site for an eco-town of more than 9,000 carbon neutral homes, seven new schools and a new dual carriageway.

Jonathan Hyland, a partner with Knight Frank in Leeds, said: “That plan has bitten the dust and the land is now back on the market and providing a rare opportunity to buy a diverse portfolio of prime freehold and agricultural land.

“The Oulton Hall Estate is blessed with an amazing location, south east of Leeds, close to Wakefield and the M1 and next to junction 30 of the M62. The estate is suitable for residential, commercial and leisure use, subject to planning."

He added: “The 555-acre estate includes Royds Green Farm, a Grade II listed five-bedroom farmhouse, two derelict cottages and an extensive range of traditional farm buildings with development potential. A substantial part of the estate is tenanted, producing an annual rent role of approximately £45,000.

“This is a very exciting development opportunity, the quality of which does not come along very often. The potential is immense.”

Oulton Hal, which dates back to the mid-18th Century, is now a luxury five-star De Vere hotel. The estate was in private hands until 1925 when it was sold to the West Riding County Council who used it as a mental hospital until 1971. De Vere bought the hotel in 1991 and Oulton Hall (Isle of Man) Ltd bought the estate in 2003.

Why would it bother Methley ? Its farther away than Newmarket and the drainage from there will not affect Methley in the way it would from Newmarket

As straws go this is the biggest one i have ever seen grasped, but it could be a ploy by LCC to get housing planned there to try and scupper your stadium and industrial units plan

The plot thickens

I suspect this is why Leeds may be objecting. I believe the Motorway Junction has capacity and could accommodate the Newmarket development, however I suspect it cannot accommodate the development on the Leeds side of the Motorway as well hence the possible objection from Leeds.

I've said it before, I believe Newmarket is deliverable if the Council gives it 100% backing.

It certainly would be interesting to LCC's viewpoint on this scheme. If they back it, it will show them up as hypocrite's and show their objection up for what it is, self interest.

There is no scheme! it is being sold as agricultural land and reference to development is speculative, it is the land agents trying to pitch the land. It is priced at around 5m for 500ish acres which suggest that planning is unlikely on most of the site. WTWC got over 4 million for bellvue which is only a few acres because it will get planning.

What this illustrates is that YC will not have paid a massive amount for Newmarket, making it worth a punt, as the worst that can happen is they sell it on like the developer has done in this case.

Stop being so paranoid

Link?

Apologies, I read it wrong! However, the question would still remain for when this fabulous development opportunity if it was ever realised.

Also I believe BV was sold for £2.8m.

Dont let facts get in the way of a fairytale.

Your funny... no really!

You clearly know nothing about drainage either, which is even funnier!

It was Methley, Oulton & Rothwell residents that campaigned hard to get the Eco Town development stopped a couple of years ago. It isn't a ploy by anybody, although it is no secret that many in LCC would like to see their side of Junction 30 developed first and steal the initial economic opportunity from Wakefield.

The land in question belongs to DeVere, well an offshore DeVere shell company, and LCC pulled a blinder here and when DeVere wanted to buy Oulton Hall Golf course they told them they had to buy the whole estate. DeVere clearly though it was worth it (and it probably was) for the Golf course and bought the whole lot. As such, they now own a bucket load of land that they don't want or need, but neither did LCC so they got their council tax payers a good deal. So it is no skin of LCC nose to block development at the moment, they sold the land in the first place!

I suspect the original deal for the land, for the developer looking to develop this Eco Town, was purchase subject to planning approval. This is a fairly normal deal for a developer, it just costs you the speculative cost and time to try and obtain planning, not mega bucks for a reasonably larger developer. This developer has clearly decided he wants to cut his loses and move on given the planning failure, again not uncommon, so DeVere are now just putting the land of the market. They won't be in a rush, they will just be happy to let developers look at it over the coming years, safe in the knowledge that it is worth something and at some point in the future, they will sell it and it will get developed, certainly in the next decade IMO.

The Newmarket land was a safer bet for Yorkcourt and they probably got a great deal by buying now and getting planning later. It is a better site than the Oulton Estate for commercial development as it is less topographically prominent, has less residents close by to worry about and it might be in the current UDP green-belt but the majority is former industrial land. The legal binding revision to the Wakefield LDF gives them a great opportunity and they are very likely to get planning at some point very soon, certainly in less than 5 years for me, worst case. In the unlikely event that they struggle they will either sit on it or look to sell, possibly as residential development land, at some point in the future when the land value will have probably risen, in effect meaning that it has cost them nothing!

Yorkcourt, like most developers and their supporting financial institutions, are in this for the long-hall. They have seen an opportunity to move their development goals forward and provide something for the community that won't cost them that much in overall future profit terms. If the ground deal goes through, which I hope it will, then great, if not the Newmarket & Methley residents will just possibly get another few units in it's place instead and Yorkscourt might have to wait a little longer to get planning... but the are highly likely to get planning eventually IMO, with or without a stadium!

I did not have the figures to hand, I was using bell vue as an example of how a piece of land minute in comparison sold for not much less than they want for this site, the reason being that planning is highly unlikely, also strengthens the argument that Newmarket is not that much of a risk to YK as they will have paid a relatively small amount for it, due to is unlikelihood of getting planning. The eco scheme shows that Developers will make risks on big schemes which explodes the myth that YC would not spend loads of money on something that will not work!

Thanks. You would be right in asking the question should a large scheme ever be granted on this site, however at present this is not the case.

Omg I could not agree more with this, the only problem for WTWC is planning is more likely to come later than sooner.