Don't sell the family silver, councillors pleaded.
Scrutiny members opposed a bid to sell off agricultural and grazing land.
Kirklees Council owns 450 acres of such land - divided into around 100 tenanted lots with an income of £38,00 a year.
Kirklees predicts the 450 acre land sales could net £1m.
But the cross-party Overview and Scrutiny Panel for Resources object and agreed to recommend the idea be dropped and the council retain the land.
Clr Donald Firth, Holme Valley South Conservative and Scrutiny chair, said: “These holdings and land are part of our family silver, we can only sell this land once then that’s it, gone forever.
“There’s a saying in Holmfirth ‘if it’s not eaten owt, leave it alone’ - this doesn’t eat into our budget, the tenants manage the upkeep so let’s leave it be.
“I know officers have got to look at everything to balance the books but this shouldn’t be it.”
Clr Julie Stewart-Turner, Newsome Green, agreed, adding: “At the moment Public Health is putting a big emphasis on Farm to Fork, healthy lifestyles and this land is really important for that.”
Mark Gregory, head of corporate landlord at Kirklees, told councillors: “It breaks even, we don’t get a lot from it in terms of core business.
“We’re looking at various options but we need to consider how it’s best managed without our input and disinvest from agricultural holdings.”
He said the land use would be retained and they were not selling it for development, due to the greenbelt nature of it, but the council had to “weigh up the intrinsic value of assets against the risk of losing services.”
Members spoke of the balance of losing revenue, losing the land and the capital gain to help reduce borrowing.
Clr Cliff Preest, Dalton Labour, said: “These 450 acres have a market value of £1m so that’s just over £2,000 an acre - I agree with the others that we shouldn’t sell the family silver.
“Julie’s point about alternative use is certainly worth exploring.
“We get a modest income to cover costs so ridding ourselves of the ability and potential just to extract £2,000 an acre seems crazy.”
At the same meeting members backed Kirklees Council’s bid to reduce its 50 depots by 50-75% into super-depot sites for building services, highways, transport and parks.
They were supportive of the council exploring small sites for house building, plus exploring shared use of buildings with health and emergency services.
But they asked that ward councillors be consulted on council building sales in their area.
Clr Stewart-Turner said: “Ward councillors should be involved right from the beginning - we know our area and we can put the council in touch with people that can help.”
David Smith, Director of Resources said they would learn from the feedback, adding: “We’ve a balance to strike between the need to reduce our estate and individual ward members wanting to preserve as much as possible.”
Clr Steve Hall, Heckmondwike Labour, said: “If things are being put up for sale we want to know so we don’t look stupid when the public asks us about it, just to be told would be nice.”
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