COUNCILLORS will vote on a controversial house-building plan today.

Members of Kirklees Council will debate the Local Development Framework (LDF) at Huddersfield Town Hall.

The blueprint could lead to 25,400 new homes in the district by 2028.

But last night it emerged that a last-minute legal problem will delay the plan by months.

Officers have decided not to send the council’s LDF proposal to Government immediately after today’s decision, as initially planned.

The plan will not now go to ministers until the former Labour government’s Regional Spatial Strategy is abolished in spring 2012.

The change means public consultation on the LDF will begin several months later than the original target date of January 2012.

Meanwhile, politicians clashed yesterday about whether the Government could step in if Kirklees sets a housing target which ministers consider too low.

Labour council leader Clr Mehboob Khan believes Kirklees has to set aside enough land to cope with the growing population.

“Every council’s plan is subject to scrutiny to ensure it meets with the Government’s requirements for housing and land for employment,” said the Greenhead councillor.

“An independent inspector will take evidence from residents and developers next year.

“The inspector could recommend that the council reconsider aspects of the plan if there was insufficient housing or employment land for the future.

“The most recent plan in our region, by Selby, has been sent back because the council didn’t put enough housing in there. We don’t want to waste public money.”

Clr Khan argued that if Kirklees didn’t produce a good enough plan, developers could win permission to build on green belt land.

“The worst case scenario is that, while the plan ping-pongs between the inspector and the council, the developers move into the green belt sites which we can’t protect because we don’t have a plan in place,” he said.

But Clr Robert Light, who leads the opposition Conservatives, said the new Localism Bill had stripped the Planning Inspectorate of the power to interfere.

“This argument is a complete white elephant,” said the Birstall and Birkenshaw councillor.

“The minister responsible has said in the House of Commons that they are stopping the powers of the Planning Inspectorate to rewrite local plans.

“As long as we can show community support for the plan then it will not be overturned.”

A leading campaigner last night backed up Clr Light.

Robert Bamforth is spokesman for Kirklees Community Action Network, an umbrella group which opposes the council’s LDF plan.

He said: “The Localism Bill abolishes the power of the Planning Inspectorate to rewrite local plans.

“We don’t need to be concerned about the possibility of the Planning Inspectorate increasing the housing figures.”

Clr Kath Pinnock, who leads the opposition Lib Dems, said the Localism Bill had reduced the inspectorate’s powers – but had not abolished them.

“In the Localism Bill the role of the Planning Inspectorate has changed, but it hasn’t changed entirely,’’ she said. “If the inspectorate was not able to do anything then why have an inspectorate?

“They can say to the council that we haven’t allocated enough land for employment and housing. That would allow developers to get the plan changed.

“Anyone who says that it’s all going to be down to local decision-making is not listening to what the Government is saying.”