COUNTRYSIDE campaigners fear that much of Yorkshire’s countryside will be lost to meet unrealistic housing targets.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England says it believes swathes of greenfield land would be cleared to make way for housing under the Government’s Regional Spatial Strategy.

This sets out the building of 22,140 homes per year in Yorkshire and Humberside until 2026, 35% on greenfield land.

And, says the CPRE, the Government may be increasing the annual target to 30,000.

Key areas for development include land surrounding Huddersfield, Brighouse and Dewsbury.

CPRE’s regional policy officer, Jenny Haynes, said: “We have grave concerns over the of these proposals on the countryside of Yorkshire.

“With up to 1m homes across the country standing empty – including 80,000 in this region – and repossessions happening daily the CPRE doesn’t believe it makes sense, or is realistic, to plan for such huge increases in housebuilding.

“By forcing councils to find land for homes we believe won’t be built many greenfield sites and Green Belt land will allocated unnecessarily.

“When the market does improve developers will inevitably cherry-pick these sites. Countryside will be lost for ever and much-needed regeneration in our towns and cities will not take place.

“We are concerned the Regional Assembly has gone to the extra length of selecting sites. We think it should be up to councils.”

Kirklees’s Cabinet member for regeneration, Clr Ken Sims, said he was confident the council and public would oppose plans to develop greenfield sites.

He added: “Unfortunately I’m pretty sure that if the Government sticks to its rigid RSS it would inevitably lead to the development of greenfield sites and there would be uproar.

“There’s no shortage of vacant properties in Kirklees and I wonder if the Government took that into account. I’m not sure they did and it’s worrying.

“I’m pretty confident Kirklees and the public will put up resistance if plans to use greenfield sites come up.

“But the Government can mandate us to do what they want, so we have to try to change their minds.”