ANGRY residents have blasted the system after councillors overturned a controversial planning decision.
Residents were pleased when planning officers vowed to remove a three metre spiked fence from green belt woodlands in Holmfirth.
The controversial fence behind Dunford Road was put up at the start of the year without planning permission by Holmfirth Dyers and was refused planning permission twice.
The company claimed the large ring of fencing behind their millworks was a vital health and safety measure to stop children falling in the mill ponds.
But residents said the fencing was a “scar on the landscape” and made the area look like Colditz or Guantanamo Bay.
And a strongly worded refusal notice by planning officers said the metal fence was – an “imposing and obtrusive feature detracting from the visual amenity and openness of the green belt”.
Planning officers also said no special circumstances had been demonstrated to outweigh the harm caused.
But, following intervention from councillors who backed the plan, the application was referred to the Huddersfield Planning Sub-committee and given the green light on health and safety grounds.
Dunford Road resident Jane Headford, who spoke against the fencing plan at the meeting, described the committee’s behaviour as a “farce”.
Ms Headford said she was seeking advice on whether committee members had operated beyond their powers as they had based their decision on health and safety claims when there was no formal representation in favour of the plan from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
She also slammed the committee for failing to understand the dangers the new fence could cause if a child did get over. “I think they looked at the water and frightened themselves.”
“The green belt should take priority over everything else in a planning issue, those are the rules. I’m absolutely horrified. We’re trying to find out if there’s any recourse, but we’re really disappointed in the system.
Ms Headford said the offer to paint the fence green and plant shrubs to hide it were of little comfort and claimed many trees had been cut down to erect the fence, contrary to what the planning committee was told.
Clr Nigel Patrick also weighed into the committee and said he was appalled at the decision.
“Health and safety isn’t a planning matter. We’ve discussed this with Kirklees’ legal officers and they agree. Also, the fence should be around the pond and not the rest of the site. It wasn’t a great day for the committee or Holmfirth town centre.
“The ponds are a matter for the HSE. What they should have done is put a smaller fence in confined to just the ponds and left the rest of it open.”
Chairman of the Huddersfield PlanningSub-committee Clr Linda Wilkinson said: “The committee thought the health and safety implications were important. We did do a site visit and thought the mitigating measures, the landscaping and the painting of the fence, outweighed the impact of it.
“Each case is different, we take each one on its own merits. We listen whether there’s 50 people or five.”
