Allerton Bywater Millennium Community, Leeds
The site
The second Millennium Community to be identified is being built on a 24 ha former colliery site 10 km south-east of Leeds, adjacent to the existing community of Allerton Bywater. Best known for being home to the last working colliery in Leeds, following its closure in 1992 many local people lost their jobs and the British Coal Board headquarters became derelict. The local Miners’ Welfare Hall fell into disrepair and the old infant school closed. Around 4,000 people live in the village today.
Initial stages
The vision for Allerton Bywater Millennium Community is to re-invigorate and expand this former mining community. This is being achieved by ensuring that the new development is well linked to the existing community through the creation of new community facilities and services. Two million pounds has now been invested in a range of new social and community facilities in the village, including the refurbishment of the former infant school building and the Miners’ Welfare Hall.
Local residents are enjoying a relocated council-run library Ofsted approved childcare, and a range of community activities including a "mums and tots group", tea dances and a new skate park, as well as 30 allotments and a rejuvenated bowling green.
The Allerton Bywater Community Partnership is a limited company that has been set up by English Partnerships with the local community as its directors. It ensures that the shared facilities are properly looked after and searches out funding opportunities for them.
Infrastructure works are now complete with new roads, suds, drainage, gas, water and electricity for all the new homes and commercial premises. There has also been extensive landscaping, a children’s play area and the inclusion of a dedicated cycle path across the site. There will also be a new village green and a memorial to miners.
In the first employment opportunity on the Millennium Community, networkspace, a joint venture between Langtree plc and English Partnerships, has developed 16 award winning workspace units. Built to a high specification these units were the first of their genre to meet the BREEAM "Excellent" standard. The units are all fully let and operational.
The village extension at Allerton Bywater Millennium Community will also provide 520 exemplar homes designed to meet Millennium Community Standards. Some of the new homes at Allerton Bywater will be examples of the very latest methods of house construction and design, for example using Modern Methods of Construction and contributing to the Design for Manufacture Competition.
A Green Transport Plan seeks to promote the use of public transport and reduce car dependency. In a first for Leeds City Council, planning permission was secured for ‘home zones’, a way of giving equal consideration to the needs of pedestrians and car-users in street design. These ‘home zones’ have been fully adopted by the local highway authority.
Current status
Miller homes are well advanced in building 193 homes at Allerton Bywater with the first residents moving in before Christmas 2006.The development includes a range of traditionally built houses arranged around a home zone. Thirty-nine affordable homes for shared ownership through The Home Housing Group, a local housing association, are included in the build programme. A number of homes for disabled and elderly people will also be included.
Fleming Fusion has completed the building of 23 homes using modern methods of construction. These houses are constructed using an off site manufacturing process to both control costs and to raise quality. The type of homes they built was on display at the Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit 2005.
Barratt Developments, a winner of the Design for Manufacture competition have started building 151 homes on a 3.2 ha plot at the Millennium Community. For more information, read Area 2, Allerton Bywater.
The Design for Manufacture Competition was launched on 1 April 2005, when the Government announced the start of a competition to demonstrate that it is possible to build a good-quality home for a construction cost of £60,000. As a minimum, all homes must follow the principles of the Urban Design published by English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.
Future phases are currently being worked up and will be brought to market individually. It is anticipated that new homes proposed in future will be briefed to updated standards including alignment with the Code for Sustainable Homes.
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Download a factsheet on Allerton Bywater Millennium Community from the Publications page.
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