There was standing room only as 200 people packed a church hall to protest against plans for hundreds of houses in their village.

And there was silence as Conservative MP Simon Reevell relayed news from the heart of government over what Kirklees Council can do to prevent ‘open season’ on open land.

The update will see an 11th hour bid to prevent a planning inquiry due to begin tomorrow that could see Redrow build 26 homes on land at Strike Lane, Skelmanthorpe.

A second inquiry is set for January with Redrow seeking to overturn rejection for more than 200 homes on Pilling Lane, Scissett.

Mr Reevell said: “There are two aspects to what Eric Pickles has said – firstly that the local authority should use the most up-to-date and reliable figures and if they are from the Official of National Statistics then use them.

“Secondly, Kirklees should look at what it wants to achieve and regard that as an emerging plan and define provisional open land in that plan.

“The advice was – don’t just go back years ago to old figures because you messed it up.

“Look at the most up-to-date information there is and use it. That’s common sense, quite frankly.

“I’m asking the Planning Inspector to consider adjourning it.

“If Kirklees explains to the Planning Inspector that they’ve got some new information from the government minister and want time to assess it I think that should be reasonable.”

Resident Phil Grosvenor, who attended the meeting, said: “Kirklees should be using the latest ONS figures to calculate their land supply figures which should mean they can now easily demonstrate they have more than five years land supply.

“Whether they do or not remains to be seen.”

Mr Grosvenor previously suggested ONS figures gave Kirklees an 11 year land supply.

Mr Reevell’s Dewsbury constituency covers Scissett and Skelmanthorpe where huge swathes of open land are at risk of development.

Councillors rejected the Skelmanthorpe application before the withdrawal of the LDF – which sets out planning policy until 2028.

Since then, the authority has decided not to defend its rejection decision. Residents, however, will make representations against.

There is some debate, however, about whether the ONS figures demonstrate if Kirklees has a five-year land supply.

If they did, it could add weight to objectors fighting to prevent development.

But council leader Clr Mehboob Khan said the letter from the Secretary of State contained “nothing new.”

“We can’t use the ONS figures – he’s wrong about that,” he said.

“Had Mr Reevell contacted Cabinet or chairs of planning committees he would know about our approach.

“Instead, he’s misleading residents and spinning a yarn.”

Clr Khan said the most helpful thing Mr Reevell could do is lobby government to bring the five year land supply requirement down to three years.