NOT an inch.

That’s the message from Conservatives as they promise no development on green belt land in the run-up to a crucial housing decision.

Kirklees Council will decide on a 17-year development blueprint next week.

The Local Development Framework (LDF) drawn up by officers would lead to 25,400 new homes in the district by 2028 – including 2,500 houses on green belt land at Ainley Top and Dewsbury.

But Kirklees Conservatives today unveiled their alternative plan, which includes:

No use of green belt land for business and employment or housing.

Enterprise Action Zones for Leeds Road in Huddersfield and Bradford Road between Dewsbury and Batley.

Town centre development plans to promote them as locations for housing and businesses.

Prioritising the use of brownfield land for housing.

A new neighbourhood planning process to give communities choices about where developments take place in their neighbourhoods.

Clr Robert Light, who leads the 21-strong opposition Conservatives on Kirklees, said: “Our plans use brownfield land to create jobs, develop our declining town centres and set an ambition for housing development which is based on what can be developed and what our communities believe to be right for their areas.

“We have long opposed the house-building targets which were forced on Kirklees by the last Labour Government, at the time we said these would only be achieved by the mass use of green belt land and the officer plans prove that we were right then.

“Our view now is that to build an average 1,000 homes a year is more than enough for our borough.