A massive housing plan that could swallow up swathes of green belt land in Kirklees may not yet be a done deal.

That’s the view of opponents and campaigners against the council’s Local Plan, which, if fully approved, will see more than 30,000 homes built across the borough.

Among the sites is the popular Bradley Park Golf Club on the outskirts of Huddersfield, which will see its “immaculate” greens reduced by half.

But whilst senior members of the Labour-controlled authority greeted a planning inspector’s report as “big results” for the area, others sounded a note of caution.

Bradley Park Golf Course.

And the town’s Labour MP, Barry Sheerman, spoke of his shock at the sheer spread of the plan and its implications for what he described as “the green lung”.

Mr Sheerman said he would consider whether to ask Secretary of State for Housing James Brokenshire to call in the plan for further review.

He added that news of the decision left him feeling “shocked and furious”.

“I know that we need homes for people to live in but 1,500 homes seems like an awful lot to me. At the moment I am rather worried.

“It’s tinged with relief that some of the golf area is going to be retained and preserved.”

Bradley Park Golf Course.

The Local Plan is the culmination of more than a decade of work by Kirklees planners. Leading Labour councillor Peter McBride said it would feature a mixture of dwellings including affordable houses and flats to rent as well as buy.

“Regeneration requires patience and dedication, but every now and then you see big results for the investment of time. This is one such day.”

Conservative councillor Nigel Patrick, whose Holme Valley South ward contains two areas earmarked for housing, said his interpretation of the inspector’s letter was different to that of Labour colleagues.

“She is saying that she is likely to approve the plan IF major modifications are made, which is not the same as what the Labour group wanted at all.

“She has deleted some housing sites and reduced others. Sandy Gate in Scholes was a big site, nearer to 200 units. It’s now down to 28, which clearly is significantly smaller than it was. I’m sure the people of Scholes will be really pleased about that.

Bradley Park Golf Course.

“All of the Clayton West site has gone along with part of the Cooper Bridge site. The Chidswell site at Dewsbury has been reduced.

“Cooper Bridge is a major strategic employment site next to the M62. If that’s not a major body blow to Peter McBride then I don’t know what is. How does that affect the economy of the borough going forward?

“And those are just the major modifications. There are a whole raft of minor modifications too, which presumably will appear in her final report. This is just an interim report on the soundness and legality of the plan.”

Clr Patrick said the Conservative group had always considered the Local Plan to be “a poor strategic decision for Kirklees as a whole”.

He described the inclusion of large industrial units on the Cooper Bridge site as “a miscalculation. It’s hit them hard”.

He added: “Cabinet will have to decide whether they accept her major modifications. If they don’t will she throw it out? That is the test. She is pushing them in that direction.”

Clr Andrew Cooper, Green group leader on the council, said the news was worrying.

“National government is heavily influenced by large national builders and it is they who are driving these high housing numbers. Locally I am very concerned that the Labour majority administration on Kirklees will seek to direct housing development on many valued local green spaces.”

Keith Waddington, chairman of 18-hole Bradley Park Golf Course, said the club was keeping all options open.

“The council at great expense had an external company that came in and said that that land was surplus to requirements. We believe we have won that argument because they have left us with a nine-hole course.

“That could be looked on as a win.

“I do want to get together with the local authority and the national bodies to have an input on what the new course is going to be like.

“Bradley Park is immaculate and we are rightly proud of it.”