Planning blueprint scrapped over legal challenge

COUNCIL CHIEFS in Kirklees have opted to tear up the rulebook on the radical Huddersfield Blueprint rather than fight a potentially costly legal challenge.

Just four months after it adopted the blueprint as a Supplementary Planning Document ( SPD), which created an official set of rules for all town centre development up to 2031, the council has revoked the document.

It follows the lodging of a Judicial Review focused on the wording of the SPD.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that the Judicial Review – a challenge to the lawfulness of a decision – was brought by the owners of St George’s Warehouse, the huge five- storey red brick building across the tracks from Huddersfield Station.

The council said it would not spend taxpayers’ money or waste officers’ time fighting the legal challenge “when the impact of withdrawing the SPD is so small”.

However it has pledged to continue to promote the Huddersfield Blueprint as its vision for the town centre. It’s just over a year since the authority unveiled its 10- year vision for the town, which will receive a £ 250m revamp that involves bulldozing the 1970s Piazza and reviving key buildings such as the George Hotel.

Another building being eyed by the council is the Grade II- listed St George’s Warehouse. It forms a key part of the Station Gateway – the multi- million pound revival of the area around Huddersfield Station.

In May the council’s decisionmaking cabinet voted to approve the acquisition of “a key location” in Huddersfield town centre as part of the blueprint project. That “strategic property”, which the council did not identify, was amongst the “land assembly” required to deliver the blueprint.