Fears over Bradford green belt remain despite cut in housing targets

Bradford Council has revised planning targets which will mean fewer homes being built in rural areas between now and 2030.

In Wharfedale, the authority has reduced its target from 3,100 homes to 1,600 and district-wide the total number proposed is now 42,100 – a reduction in 3,400.

The revised figures are contained in a new planning document, the Core Strategy, which sets out targets but without identifying specific sites.

Councillors welcomed the changes but said they will continue to campaign for the preservation of green belt land.

Anne Hawkesworth, a former Conservative and now independent councillor for Ilkley, welcomed the reduction in the town’s housing target from 1,300 to 800 but said 500 would be more manageable.

“In my heart I want to say about 100 homes but, being realistic, we can probably take 500. Even then most of that will be green belt.”

She is urging residents to comment on the proposals in January once they are ratified but fears that campaigners in Ilkley may be feeling “war weary” after previous planning battles.

Coun Hawkesworth said the reduction in proposed housing in Wharfedale was the result of a habitat regulation survey “forced on the council by English Nature.”

Elsewhere in rural parts of the district, the numbers of homes being proposed have been cut.

Addingham’s target has been dropped from 400 to 200, Menston’s to 400 from 900 and Silsden’s from 1,700 to 1,000.

Queensbury’s revised target is now 1,000, a drop of 500 and Burley-in-Wharfedale will now need to find space for 200 homes rather than 500.

Haworth’s new target is 500, a drop of 100 homes and Cottingley’s is now 150 and not 300.

Cullingworth’s revised target has risen from 150 to 300 – though this can be put down to a 238 home planning application expected for the Manywells industrial estate.

Cullingworth Tory councillor Simon Cooke said the revised Core Strategy still represented a threat to green belt land.

He said: “In general terms the proposals are an improvement. However at 30 houses per hectare the proposals mean a considerable amount of green belt land (as much as 50 acres) is required around Cottingley, Wilsden and Harden.

“As well as the loss of local amenity this implies, there are no substantive proposals in the plan to improve the transport network serving the villages either through better public transport or highway improvements.

“A wider concern about the Plan relates to the proposals to phase the release of land – presumably with much of the ‘green belt’ deletions coming in phase two, after 2023.

“The aim is to ensure the development of ‘brownfield’ sites in the inner-city.

“We don’t think this will work – developers will simply develop greenfield sites elsewhere while waiting for the prime green belt sites in Airedale and Wharfedale to come available.”

He added: “Without some sort of link – either financial or through making land release contingent on development of brownfield – the inner city regeneration desired by this Plan simply won’t happen.”

The council’s executive will be asked to approve the Core Strategy on November 19. It will then go to the full council on December 10.

It will go on to be submitted to Government. Further documents will then be produced allocating specific housing sites. These will be subject to intense scrutiny and possible challenge.

Coun Val Slater, the executive member responsible for housing, said it was important to meet demand for housing “without letting developers have a free-for-all on our wonderful natural landscape”.