A MILL conversion in the Holme Valley is set to go ahead after Kirklees Council lost a planning appeal.

Developers plan to revamp and extend buildings at Hinchliffe Mills to form 19 apartments and will build two houses off Spring Lane to the south of the site.

A number of buildings will also be demolished.

Although the regeneration of the old textile mill was given the thumbs up by Kirklees’ planning department, the scheme was turned down by the council’s planning sub-committee, a group of councillors assembled to rule on contentious applications.

But now the Government’s planning inspectorate has reversed the committee’s decision, saying their concerns that the new flats would produce too much traffic congestion were not valid.

The inspector acknowleged Holmbridge’s steep and narrow roads were not up to modern standards, but said they were typical of many Pennine settlements.

He said residents adapted to the cramped highway network and residential use of the mill would be preferable to the re-introduction of commercial traffic, due to the potential conflict with domestic vehicles.

The inspector agreed with council officers’ view that the scheme would preserve and enhance the character and appearance of the area and noted there had been no recorded injuries or accidents on Dobb Lane, Water Lane or Co-op Lane or their junctions with Old Road with Woodhead Road, and that traffic flows were not high.

But Clr Nigel Patrick, said he thought the inspector had made a mistake.

He said: “The road network is dreadful, how an inspector can deem it to be satisfactory beggars belief.

“Personally I don’t think they should be building anything on a flood zone, there’s the possibility of flood damage and even the loss of life. These mills were built there because of the access to water, nobody ever built houses on them.

“It’s not built up because our fore-fathers had more sense than we’ve got now.”

Clr Patrick added that he thought there were plenty of other brown field sites in the Holme Valley that were not in flood zones and said he could not understand why council officers were refusing applications on them in favour of areas near the river.

The reversal of the council’s decision at Hinchliffe Mills comes amid the news that the the council lost more than a quarter of the appeals against it in 2007/08.

Of the 50 appeals, 34 were dismissed and 16 were upheld – four of which were in the Holme Valley.