Scheme to build 67 homes on a meadow is rejected

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build houses on a watermeadow that floods in heavy rain has been thrown out.

Campaigners have fought a long battle to stop a 67-home estate going up at Granny Lane in Mirfield, near Huddersfield.

The proposals by Wakefieldbased Miller Homes have pinballed back and forth between various committees at Kirklees Council. Now they have been refused.

It was a tight victory for locals opposed to the plan, with the seven-member Strategic Planning Committee voting four to three.

Planning officers said none of the houses being planned would be built in the area of land worst affected by flooding.

But councillors said they were not confident that measures being suggested to tackle flooding would work.

Coun Nigel Patrick (Con, Holme Valley South) said: “I don’t believe that this site should have houses on it.

“If this committee approves this and the site floods, this committee is responsible.”

Speaking after the committee’s decision, a spokeswoman for campaign groups Save Mirfield and Granny Lane Area Action Group (GLAAG) said common sense had prevailed.

She added: “It was very tense this afternoon but we are grateful to those who voted to refuse. Our faith in the system has received a boost as a result. After almost two years of hard work we have achieved our goal of getting this ridiculous development refused.”

The scheme was supported by council planners as it is allocated for housing in the authority’s Local Plan. The aim is to build 31,000 new homes in a decade.