Consultation on scheme to build 28,000 homes branded ‘sham’

Kirklees Council began the two-month consultation process in December over the local development framework, which could lead to 28,000 more homes by 2028.

The LDF was drawn up as a planning blueprint for the entire Kirklees district – with the aim of building more homes to cope with demand and population growth.

Opponents of the housebuilding programme said the consultation process was badly handled and unfair.

The leader of the Conservative group on the council, Councillor Robert Light, raised a number of concerns about the consultation process and called for an investigation.

He claimed the process was a “sham” and that:

The consultation was not effective.

It was not adequately publicised.

It did not adequately cover the many communities that make up Kirklees.

It had been apparent from meetings that publicity material prepared by the Council had not been widely received.

He also called for an urgent review of the methods of consultation and for more residents to be given another chance to comment on the proposals.

A review was then ordered, following Coun Light’s request, and the resulting report will be presented today for discussion by councillors on the overview and scrutiny management committee.

The committee could ask for the consultation process to be repeated.

The report revealed that at least 14,000 households did not receive leaflets about the LDF proposals.

A catalogue of problems to do with tight timescales meant that the authority was forced to accept that not everyone would get leaflets.

The report said: “It was originally planned to present information in the December 2010 edition of (the council newsletter) Kirklees Together, however because of delays in reaching agreement on the text/content, it became apparent that the Kirklees Together deadline of November 12 was not going to be achievable.”

Council leaders then decided to use the private distributor, which was cheaper than posting out to each household at a cost of £43,000 – but this meant accepting that not all homes would get leaflets.

Private firm Mailbox Nationwide were unable to guarantee delivery to all addresses.

“Whilst not at the levels of Kirklees Together distribution, it was felt that this was acceptable given the timescales and cost,” the report added.

Mailbox Nationwide has now said that they delivered 172,975 leaflets, or 92.5 per cent of homes.

“Regrettably, over 14,000 homes would not have received a leaflet,” the report also revealed.

“Distribution was affected by 10 days due to the extreme weather conditions.”

The report added that council officers hand-delivered another 150 leaflets when requests were made and a further 7,000 were made available at libraries, town halls and schools.

The council said the LDF consultation received over 1,200 representations, most of them through the post.

Officers who looked into the problems encountered during the consultation have drawn up five points under the heading “lessons learnt”.

In future there should be:

Better engagement with council ward members, MPs and parish councillors through improved pre-publicity.

Less reliance on “traditional” public meetings.

Consideration given to new ways to get information to residents.

A clearer focus on the purpose of consultation, the content of information used and the need to “keep it simple”.