Tories to protest as councillors vote on local plan

A PROTEST against the adoption of the long-term planning blueprint for Calderdale is being organised by the district council’s opposition Conservative group ahead of a crunch vote next week.

It takes place on June 21, when members of Calderdale Council will vote whether to accept the authority’s local plan.

The council’s cabinet this week agreed to approve the plan, which will allocate housing and business development space in Calderdale for the next 15 years, and recommend it to next week’s special extraordinary council meeting.

The Conservatives claim the plan is unsound, unfair and not fit for purpose. Conservative group leader Coun Scott Benton added: “We welcome the support of all residents in Calderdale at this protest.”

Coun Daniel Sutherland, the council’s planning, housing and environment portfolio holder, told a meeting this week that the plan for homes and industry was an exciting prospect that would allow the borough to maximise its potential. He said it would make Calderdale a place where people would want to live, work and visit, with garden suburbs planned at Thornhills, Rastrick, Woodhouse and Brighouse “a fantastic opportunity”.

It balanced the need to provide potential sites for new homes with protecting Calderdale’s Green Belt and was “a bold strategy and well thought through”.

The Conservatives disagree, arguing it lacks detail in relation to infrastructure to support development, particularly in developments in East Calderdale – Brighouse, Northowram, Shelf, Elland and Greetland – which will carry the weight of new homes to be built over the next 15 years.

More than 4,500 of the 9,000 new homes expected to be needed could be built in the Brighouse, Rastrick and Hipperholme areas alone, said Coun Benton.