30-year-old plan for 50 new houses on green site

Now local developers are again bidding to make use of the space, which is next to Coronation Park.

The development would require the clearance of dozens of mature oak, ash, birch and sycamore trees, and a report admits it could threaten bird and bat populations.

But planning documents reveal developers have already been told by Kirklees Council officials that some form of building should be possible.

Almost half the site falls within the Kirklees Wildlife Habitat Network – a designated area for conserving and enhancing the natural environment. This area of woodland next to Coronation Park, Milnsbridge, could be the site of 50 new homes. Right, Clr Andrew Marchington

Ecological consultants have said there may be some harm done if building was to go ahead but they cannot say what until specific designs are produced.

A report says methods of mitigating the damage could be employed.

The developers have said the steeper section of woodland towards Deep Lane will be left untouched and a buffer zone will be created so houses don’t look out directly on to the park.

Golcar ward Lib Dem, Clr Andrew Marchington, said his party was worried about the scale of developing happening before Kirklees Council’s development blueprint – the Local Plan – was finished.

“We’ve got some concerns,” he said. “We’ve done some research and we think there’s brown field sites available.

“We’ve got three or four developments on the go at the same time and all that traffic is going to be feeding through Milnsbridge.”

The site has already been allocated for housing in Kirklees’ yet to be ratified Local Plan. But during the consultation there was just one objection to its inclusion.

A member of Historic England has lodged a complaint saying that any new homes would be too close to the Grade 2 listed former Church of St Luke and its vicarage.