Hearings to discuss huge housing plans for the whole of Calderdale to begin again

October saw phase two of the hearings begin into the Local Plan, which will identify sites where thousands of new homes and businesses might be built into the 2030s, begin virtually, screened via Calderdale Council’s YouTube channel.

The council late last year submitted proposals for a ten, rather than 15, year format with new home numbers needed reviewed after ten years.

This would mean the council building 9,970 homes over a decade, when the position would be reassessed to see more accurately how many new homes, if any, might still be needed.

The proposals have been hugely controversial especially in southern parts of Calderdale where sites for many of the new homes have been identified, including two potential Garden Suburbs near Brighouse.

When hearings resume on Tuesday, November 10, these areas are among those that will each have a hearing session dedicated to them, where the council will be able to put its case and groups and individuals who are opposing the allocations will also have their say.

November 10 – sessions start at 10am each day – will see the first of the Garden Suburb sites brought into focus, with morning and afternoon sessions devoted to Woodhouse.

On Wednesday, November 11, possible housing allocation sites elsewhere in Brighouse will comprise the morning session, while the afternoon’s session – these usually run from around 2pm – will take in Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Ripponden and Sowerby Bridge potential housing sites.

Elland will the focus of the Thursday, November 12, sessions and have representatives from Greetland scheduled to take part.

In the following week, on Tuesday, November 17, Halifax housing allocations will be in the spotlight during the morning session, with Todmorden taking up the afternoon session.

Issues considered more generally on Thursday, November 19, and Tuesday, November 24, include climate change, minerals, waste and a number of other policies.

Then on Wednesday, November 25, both sessions will consider issues at Northowram and Shelf.

On Thursday, November 26, both sessions will be devoted to the other Garden Suburb site at Thornhills.

Some further general sessions including updates will be considered on Thursday, December 3, and Friday, December 4, when the hearings will end.

Planning Inspector Katie Child, appointed by the Government to chair the hearings, will then spend some time to consider the representations made, along with those already submitted, before making her recommendation to the Ministers as to whether the Local Plan – every local authority has to have one – should be adopted for Calderdale.

Once the plan is cleared for adoption it will form a new planning framework for Calderdale Council – if it is not approved the Government is likely to take over the process.

The first phase of hearings were held in summer 2019 at Shelf Village Hall.