Plans for a new housing estate - set to be refused by councillors - have been withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
Developers Bellway Homes wants to build 135 homes on Balderstone Fields off Hepworth Lane, Mirfield.
Kirklees Council planning officers had recommended refusal to councillors on the Strategic Planning Committee meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall today.
But 40 minutes before the meeting a letter on behalf of the developers asked for the plans to be withdrawn.
Councillors had visited the site yesterday and the application had been due to be decided from 1pm. Protesters had taken time out to attend and address the committee before the decision was made.
Councillors on the committee were unhappy at the short notice. Chairman Clr Steve Hall said the meeting had been split into two days and it was “not on” that developers should act at such short notice.
Campaigners were ringing round each other this morning so that no-one wasted their time by turning up this afternoon.
Mirfield Tory councillor Martyn Bolt said: “We greet this was cautious scepticism. It’s obviously a tactical withdrawal by the developers.
“If they got a refusal that would change the goalposts but this way the application is merely recorded as not determined. They can now go away and tweak it.”
Bellway Homes lost a public inquiry to build on the land in 1999. There was a massive campaign under the slogan: No Way Bellway.
Groups including Save Mirfield and Project Mirfield have objected.
Save Mirfield chair Cheryl Tyler said: “We are very disappointed. There was a chance the planners would have backed the officers’ recommendations and thrown out this application.
“We fear Bellway have done this at the last minute to come back at a later date with revised plans.
“We are not going to go away. We will continue to battle to get this black cloud over Mirfield removed”.
