The vision to create a £150m country park for Huddersfield has cleared its first hurdle.
It has been strongly backed by thousands of people in a public vote online.
Landowner Farnley Estates revealed its plan to transform much of its land around Farnley Tyas into a public park in The Examiner last May.
Members of the public were encouraged to vote for or against the radical idea at the website www.peopleforthepark.co.uk
And the plan, which could create 450 jobs, has now been hailed as a great idea by 85% of those who voted.
Over 8,800 people of the 10,375 that voted said they would love to see the facility made a reality. Just 1,452 responses were against the plan.
A presentation of the results of the vote, open to the public, will be hosted from 7pm tonight at Castle Hill School.
Farnley Estates hopes to emulate Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire and Grizedale in Cumbria, which both have a network of bike tracks, marked walking routes and educational facilities.
Both sites, run by the Forestry Commission, also have the popular Go Ape tree top adventure trails – something Farnley Estates has said it hopes to attract.
The Farnley Estates team say they were delighted that analysis of the voting showed support for the proposal came from every postcode in Kirklees and beyond.
The plan now hinges on Kirklees Council progressing its Local Plan, based on its Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).
The SHLAA has identified every potential piece of land for new homes in Kirklees.
Council officials and councillors must now decide if they want to use any of Farnley Estates’ land – which covers 6,000 acres of HD4, HD8 and HD9.
If they do, then the park idea could go ahead.
Paul Sykes, director of Farnley Estates, said they were excited to get the public approval they hoped for but realistic that the whole idea relied on the decisions of the council.
“We’re entirely in the hands of the politicians,” he admitted. “We have no idea whether they’ll support it or not.
“What we do know, is there’s overwhelming support from every part of Huddersfield for this to go ahead.”
Kirklees’ Local Plan has identified a need to build 36,000 houses and plots of land in every ward in Kirklees have been marked out.
Mr Sykes, who has been clear that the only way the park can happen is if they get the income from land sales to pay for the infrastructure of paths, park structures and people to do the work, added: “I think we are the only business who’s put their land forward to Kirklees and said this is what we’re prepared to give Huddersfield back.”
But he said he realised there were those ideologically opposed to any development in the countryside.
“We get it that some people just don’t like the idea of building in the green belt,” he said.
“But all along we’ve said, if Kirklees decides it does need to build in the green belt (to meet its housing target), get a park out of it.
“If they don’t want to build in the green belt, forget it.”
Kirklees is expected to open formal consultation on its Local Plan sites in the next few weeks.
Members of the public will have until the summer of 2016 to give their views before a final version is submitted to the Government.
From there it will take a further year to 15 months to formalise the plan, which is expected to be adopted in late 2017.
