COUNCILLORS have agreed a housing plan for Huddersfield for the next 15 years after a stormy 13-hour meeting.

Parties hammered out a compromise which will allow 7,640 new homes in Huddersfield in the next 15 years but none on the green belt.

The groups came to a deal on the Local Development Framework (LDF) after a marathon meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall.

The compromise will allow 22,470 new homes throughout Kirklees in the next 15 years, including 2,472 in the towns of south Kirklees. But the only green belt land provided for housing will be in south Dewsbury and Chidswell between Dewsbury and Batley.

Kirklees Council also agreed in principle to release 122 hectares of land for employment use. However, plans to open up five hectares of the Grimescar Valley for industrial development were rejected.

ABywater: “13 hours? My goodness, what a marathon of a meeting. I have to say for us in Huddersfield we seem to have got an all right deal.

“It will be interesting to see the small print of the agreement and to eventually find out where these new homes will be. I doubt everyone will be happy, but it could be a lot worse.”

HuddsProperty: “I have to say it seems a bit harsh on the WF postcode campaigners of Mirfield and Dewsbury. I suppose these are hot spots to target for unemployment.

“This is only a partial decision and must get voted through again next spring when they submit it as they are waiting for the previous government’s Regional Spatial Strategy expire first. I still smell a massive appeal.”

Jackdaw: “LDF should stand for Landscape Destruction Fiasco. How can anyone seriously believe that over the next 15 years (unless there is a return to coal mining, heavy engineering, chemical and textile manufacture etc) tens of thousands of jobs will be created in Kirklees?

“To propose this is at best wildly optimistic, and at worst deluded folly. Building 20,000+ new houses will ruin Kirklees, not miraculously save it. And how can any house be ‘affordable’? They won’t be given away free!

“Such a move will simply serve to kill off the hopes of thousands of local people currently trying to sell or rent their properties and no doubt end up costing the taxpayer millions in additional housing benefits.”

hardupandfedup: “Firstly, where is South Kirklees? There is no such place. Where are the 7,000-plus houses in Huddersfield to be built? Edmund Thornhill is a developer – what other reason can he have to build houses?”