Soggy Bottom Blues for Housing Planners

Proposals by Taylor Wimpey to build 200 new homes on land at the rear of Moseley Wood Gardens, in Cookridge, Leeds, are likely to be scrapped by members of Leeds City Council’s Plans Panel on Thursday, having been advised to reject it.

Local residents came together to form the Cookridge Residents Action Group (CRAG), who say the building plans “defy even the remotest logic.” The area of land on which it was proposed the houses be built is known locally as Soggy Bottom, due to its “severe and persistent problems with water retention.”

The CRAG came together a year ago, resurrecting the group that originally formed in 1962 to oppose plans of a similar nature. They even have their own resistance song called the ‘Soggy Bottom Calypso‘. It’s not quite as catchy as ‘I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow‘ by the Soggy Bottom Boys, but, to be fair, not much is.

Among the objections in the report to be submitted to the council, in addition to the flooding problems, are the harming of living conditions to locals as a result of increased traffic, lack of access to the site, and the impact on access to medical services and schools.

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