Reform sets up working party ahead of Calderdale Local Plan review
Calderdale Reform has announced a working party will be established ahead of a scheduled review of Calderdale’s Local Plan.
Campaigners concerned about the plan – which details where thousands of new homes might be built into the 2030s – will have a role shaping a review of it, senior councillors have pledged.
And Reform says moves will be made to remove some green belt sites which are included when the plan is reviewed.
The Local Plan is due to be reviewed next year, and Calderdale Council cabinet members have now agreed to set up a Local Plan Working Party before this happens.
The ruling Reform UK group’s approach to the review is set to be different to the previous Labour administration’s.
Labour had chosen housing levels they argued are necessary to attract young families into the borough, which has an ageing population.
These include two garden communities on sites around Brighouse which have been particularly controversial among communities there.
But Reform say they are looking to cut back on sites which had been green belt but included in the plan – which would impact on the numbers – and concentrate on building the type of housing they argue better meet the needs of an ageing population.
Leader of the council, Coun Daniel Sutherland, said the local plan working party would be cross party but also give voice to people who had campaigned about it.
Coun Sutherland – a Labour councillor for 15 years before he defected to Reform last year - was Calderdale Council’s cabinet member for Planning, Housing and Environment when the Local Plan was drafted.
On reviewing the plan, he said: “Because I see the main challenge is not a population that is growing in Calderdale, it is a population that is ageing and what we need to make sure is that we’ve got the right housing for people to live healthy and independent lives for as long as possible, preferably in the in the communities that they already live in or are brought up in, and at the moment that is a major challenge.
“And the the current focus on large formerly green belt used for housing on the motorway belt is something we need to shift away from.”