Calderdale Local Plan update

In Calderale, the Public Examination of the Local Plan will begin in June. We are working closely with Anthony Rae from Calderdale Friends of the Earth, along with several local activists, to make sure CPRE’s concerns are well-represented.

We have three main concerns with the Draft Local Plan. First is its dependence on two very large ‘Garden Villages’ on the edge of Brighouse, which are more likely to be commuter housing estates than lively communities and eat significantly into the pressured Green Belt between Brighouse and Huddersfield around the M62. Second is that the Plan effectively abandons brownfield land as an ongoing source of housing land, despite brownfield sites have contributed consistently over the past twenty years. Third is that Calderdale’s ambitions for job growth don’t add up, and precious little action is proposed to address the challenges of climate change.

None of these problems come as any surprise, and we submitted detailed evidence in September 2018. But we are very worried that the government’s lack of faith in the planning system will only tend to weaken, instead of strengthen, the local authority’s ability to make good planning decisions that meet genuine needs for housing and employment while protecting and enhancing the countryside.