Backing for fresh bid to build new homes

A fresh bid to build a controversial housing development in a Holme Valley village has won council officers’ backing despite opposition.

More than 40 people have written to Kirklees Council objecting to the scheme, which could see up to 25 new homes built on land off St Mary’s Avenue, Netherthong, near Holmfirth.

Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney has also objected but the council’s planning sub-committee (Huddersfield Area) will be advised to give conditional outline approval on Thursday.

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Mr McCartney said: “We need to accept that some of the villages around Holmfirth just cannot take any more development. The infrastructure in Netherthong, whether with the roads or the local schools, is creaking at the seams. A similar development has already been rejected near this one for these very reasons and the council needs to listen to local people and protect these green fields from unsustainable development.”

An identical outline planning application for the same scheme was refused earlier this year.

Planning consultant Andrew Keeling said: “The application site is a reserved housing site on the local plan and that has been the case since 1999. Reserved housing sites should be brought forward when there is a shortage of housing.

“Kirklees has a shortage of housing and therefore, sites such as these should now be developed to assist in meeting the identified shortfall. We have carefully considered all of the technical matters, for example, highway safety and drainage. We have employed experts in these areas who have liaised with the council’s own experts and all of these matters have been found to have been satisfactorily dealt with.”