Kirklees Council has been told: You have got your housing plans wrong.

Planning Inspector Roland Punshon yesterday told Kirklees officers he looked at a map and knew the council had made a mistake in the Local Development Framework Core Strategy housing plans.

Kirklees has put forward its future housing strategy based on the authority as a single market housing area (SMHA).

But Mr Punshon does not believe Kirklees can operate as a single market.

The inspector, who agreed housing matters were often the most controversial issue in planning, said: “The council has administered the area of Kirklees as a single site market housing area.

“I looked at Kirklees on the map and it was enough to convince me that the borough does not operate by itself.

“The council says it has evidence that Kirklees is a single site market area; I haven’t seen that evidence.

“A housing market area does not stop at a borough boundary, there are influences from adjacent authorities.

“My concern is that the figures in the Core Strategy cannot be relied upon because of this.”

The issues were raised at an LDF exploratory meeting at Brian Jackson House, in front of councillors, council officers, planning experts and residents.

The LDF core strategy set out how much new development would be permitted and where it should be.

The council put forward plans for 22,470 new homes and 122 hectares of land for employment by 2028.

Mr Punshon said comments made by residents at the meeting “back up my feeling” when told some viewed north Kirklees as a feeder for Leeds.

And one resident, Robert Bamforth, said he believes there is more than one market in Kirklees – with the north east and south west having “little in common”.

There were laughs when Mr Punshon said: “I go to some council areas and wonder how on earth the towns were ever lumped together” and some residents shouted out “Welcome to Kirklees”.

Mr Punshon then addressed the council’s housing need, saying if the market area is wrong the figures are too.

He said: “The council has three options: 1 – go ahead and have a hearing on these matters 2 – re-examine the policy or 3 – withdraw it if you cannot produce evidence without re-writing it.”

Patrick Auterson, policy manager for Kirklees development and planning, confirmed the authority would now re-look at its housing strategy.

But there will be a further hearing into the Inspector’s main concern – the council’s duty to co-operate.

Mr Auterson said Kirklees has evidence to show they comply with the duty.

Mr Punshon described his areas of concern as “show-stoppers” which he said would bring a halt to the LDF if they remain unresolved.

While he has not rejected Kirklees’s LDF he believes it could fail a soundness test on its duty to co-operate.

He said the council could be at risk of a £70,000 bill if matters proceeded unresolved – and he warned of the potential of future High Court action from aggrieved parties if the LDF was not fit for purpose.

The duty to co-operate means Kirklees should provide evidence of co-operation with two or more authorities on strategic issues.

Mr Punshon explained that Kirklees had documented the Regional Assembly’s Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and talks at Leeds City Region (LCR) level.

He said that the revoked Assembly inclusion would have been evidence of cooperative working.

Mr Punshon said: “Most councils in the LCR area are working on their Core Strategy on the basis of the RSS.

“Kirklees isn’t, they changed tack. They haven’t come to me saying ‘look, we’ve evidence of cooperating because we worked on the RSS’.

“The council have come up with figures for housing but I’ve no evidence that’s based on consultation or co-operation.

“The council then delayed submitting the plan until the RSS was formally revoked in order that they wouldn’t have to comply with the RSS test. But it seems to me that they waited until there was a position that they couldn’t be forced to comply with the RSS.

“Then you consider the discussions at LCR level, the evidence put to me is that there were discussions, but I couldn’t see any evidence of the strategic outcome.

“It’s more than just consultation, it’s about working together.”

A hearing date has not yet been set.