Kirklees’ Conservatives have branded the council’s Local Plan as the “biggest attack on the green belt in history”.

Plans for providing land for 30,000 homes published by Kirklees Council earlier this week show some development will be allowed on the cherished countryside.

Large green belt plots have been identified at Bradley Park golf course in Huddersfield and at Chidswell in Dewsbury along with a small amount of other sites.

Click below to see sites marked for development

The council has said the Kirklees comprises 70% green belt land and only 1.7% of that could be used for housing in the next 15 years.

But Conservative leader, Clr Robert Light, said: “At the end of the day they’ve still doubled the amount of green belt use.”

Liberal Democrat leader, Clr Nicola Turner, said she was glad the council finally had a plan and claimed it had “lost control of its planning department” following the scrapping of the LDF in 2013.

Meanwhile Green chief, Clr Andrew Cooper, said the house building targets were “ridiculously high” due to central government diktats.

READ MORE Kirklees Council housing development plans: Full list of sites to host 20,000 homes - is there one near you?

WHAT THEY SAY

The Tories said they condemned the Labour led council’s “complete rejection of local residents views”.

Conservative leader Clr Robert Light

Kirklees Council Conservative leader Robert Light
Kirklees Council Conservative leader Robert Light

“We urge people to lodge their views on Labour’s local Plan with the council, because this will impact on the lives of everyone in the borough for years to come.

“We believe the plan is bad for Kirklees and is not sustainable without a massive investment to overhaul the transport infrastructure of the borough.

“We will be looking at Labour’s proposals in detail and the impact that they will have in all communities across Kirklees.

“We will be closely examining their justification for their intended incursions into green belt and the increased allocation of land for housing proposals. In addition we will be taking note of the results of their consultation exercise with great interest.”

Liberal Democrat leader Clr Nicola Turner

Clr Nicola Turner, leader of the Kirklees Liberal Democrat group

“I’m very glad we’ve got something on the table at last. It’s taken forever.

“Because we’ve not had a plan all these planning applications on Provisional Open Land (POL) are getting passed. We’ve lost control of our planning department.

“For me the important thing now is to let the public see the plans and listen to what they say. I want to hear from people who’ve got constructive things to say.

“I’m prepared to be open minded and listen.”

Clr Turner said she hoped brown field land would be used before green belt but agreed it was important to offer major sites as opposed to slowly increasing the size of every single village.

“It cannot be fair that every community gets the same amount of houses as we haven’t got the infrastructure to support it.

“That will cost a lot more money than having major housing sites as we can then put in the infrastructure.”

Green party leader Clr Andrew Cooper

Green Clr, Andrew Cooper.

Green party leader in Kirklees, Clr Andrew Cooper, criticised central government for forcing the council’s hand.

He said: “It shouldn’t be necessary to build on golf courses or any green belt land but government housing targets are what is really driving this. It is about the Conservative government’s close relationship with the Home Builders Federation.

“If Kirklees doesn’t pass a plan that the government finds acceptable then they (through the Planning Inspectorate) will overrule the council.

“Having no Local Plan means builders will effectively be able to build where they like.

“So councils are faced with offering a Local Plan with targets for housing numbers which are ridiculously high or have no plan so builders can build wherever they like”.

Colne Valley MP, Jason McCartney

MP Jason McCartney

Jason McCartney was outspoken against the council’s previous housing blueprint and said he “massively questioned” the numbers of houses needed but admitted he was unsure where the 30,000 number came from.

He said: “Nobody ever comes to my surgeries and says they can’t find a home to live in.”

Mr McCartney said the council should focus on bringing empty homes back to use and re-developing old mills and other brown field sites.