Historic England still to approve Castle Hill plan
CONTROVERSIAL plans for a cafe on Castle Hill in Huddersfield cannot go ahead without the approval of Historic England, the commission for buildings and scheduled monuments in England.
However there are doubts that it will go against the government, which has declined a formal request to “call in” the plan for review.
Kirklees Council, which has backed designs for a low-lying cafe/ restaurant with bedrooms and interpretation facilities for visitors plus a car park on the 4,000-year-old Neolithic site, has said it will issue the decision notice for the application.
Historic England itself has confirmed that it has yet to assess a Scheduled Monument Consent application for the Castle Hill proposal. But it said that it objected to the proposal “on the basis that there was insufficient clarity of the potential public benefits needed to balance the harm caused,”
The call-in request was filed by Huddersfield Civic Society.
A spokesman said it was “based on a desire to avoid wholly inappropriate development in one of the most important green belt locations in Kirklees and to protect one of the north of England’s most important heritage sites.”
Clr Andrew Cooper (Green, Newsome) was among those who objected to the plan.
He said: “The expectation is that the political process would protect us. We are in effect hanging on the power of a quango.
“It’s a brave quango that goes against a government minister.
“I think we are in uncharted territory.”