Chidswell Action Group plans next move in Kirklees LDF fight

CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for homes and businesses on green belt land met at the weekend to plan their next move.

More than 200 people joined Chidswell Action Group for Saturday’s meeting on Leeds Road playing fields in Shaw Cross.

Top of the agenda was how they could stop council plans to build 500 homes on green belt land and release a further 35 hectares for business or industrial use in Chidswell.

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The plans are part of Kirklees Council’s Local Development Framework which was adopted by the council in March and must be approved next by a planning inspector.

Action group chairman Rod Lilley said they were pleased to be joined by campaigners from across Kirklees and Morley.

“The support was tremendous,” he said. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on. We can’t stop.

“If we don’t overturn it, my concern is – not just in Kirklees, but across the country – that it’s going to be open for them to build whenever they want, wherever they want. If they can build on green belt that’s being farmed, it’s never going to stop.”

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The group now meets regularly with campaigners in Morley to look at how they can work together to stop both areas becoming overdeveloped.

But Mr Lilley said the next move in the Chidswell campaign would depend in part on the outcome of the local elections.

He said the group would also be encouraging as many people as possible to make representations to the planning inspector who will review the Kirklees LDF plan when the time comes.

“We feel it can still be won at that stage,” he said.

A six-week period for representations is due later this year.