BREAKING: Kirklees Council’s LDF recommended for withdrawal

The council has announced today officers are to recommend the withdrawal of the Local Development Framework (LDF) in light of information from the government’s planning inspectorate.

Officers will make the recommendation to the council’s Cabinet on July 2 and the full council is expected to approve their plans at a meeting on July 10.

Kirklees’s LDF proposals, which set out proposals for housing and business development throughout the area, was sent to the planning inspector in April.

They were thrown into chaos last month when the inspector raised concerns over the use of green belt land, lack of consultation with neighbouring authorities, and insufficient land for housing.

The inspector said if changes were needed, the new approach could be ‘fundamentally different’.

He added: “I therefore suggest that the council should give careful consideration to this matter and should make a pragmatic and realistic assessment of its prospects of receiving a recommendation from me that the Core Strategy be adopted. In these circumstances the Council may wish to give consideration to withdrawal of the Core Strategy.”

Coun Peter McBride, joint Cabinet member for place, said: “After studying the options available the best course of action looks to be the withdrawal of the core strategy and agreeing a replacement.

“If we continued with our submission and it failed at a later stage we would be even further behind than taking the decision to withdraw now. This is an important piece of work and it is imperative that we get it right.”

Earlier today we reported campaign groups had seen a letter written by council director Jacqui Gedman to the planning inspector saying she would be advising the full council to withdraw the LDF.

She said: “On the basis of your comments regarding the actions we took to meet the duty it seems to me that it is unlikely that the test will be found to have been passed.

“Weighing this risk against the council’s wish to have an up to date plan in place as quickly as possible, I have concluded that recommending withdrawal is the best course of action.”