Vacant section of historic 1868 building to be brought back into use

Calderdale Council’s Local Plan has allocated the site on the corner of Thornhills Lane and Jay House Lane at Clifton for development of homes as part of the Thornhill Garden Community.

The Thornhill Garden Community is one of two – the other is nearby at Woodhouse – which could see around 3,000 new homes built into the 2030s.

The garden community proposals have been controversial and opposed by some residents and councillors through the Local Plan process – the Local Plan was adopted by Calderdale Council three years ago.

Richard Kaye has applied to Calderdale Council, at this stage seeking outline permission to build the homes.

This would consider access and if granted establish a principle of developing the site, with all matters relating to layout, scale and appearance reserved for subsequent consideration in a future full application.

Agents for the applicant, Lark Architects, say the site is allocated for development as part of the Thornhill Garden Community in the Local Plan.

“The applicant considers that there seem no sound planning reasons why a small independent development on the application site could not proceed on its own.

“There also seems no reason to suppose that reserved matters details of this scheme would not be designed in accordance with the Thornhills masterplanning framework,” argue the agents, noting the council has already granted outline planning permission for two homes on another nearby plot that is also part of the garden community.

Submission drawings show an arrangement of the four detached houses but this is forillustrative purposes only, to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposal and to show how the encircling woodland to the west and north road boundaries would be retained, they say.

The application, number 26/00295/OUT, and supporting statements can be viewed on the council’s Planning Portal.