Local Plan: Calderdale Council's plans to use emergency powers for £12.m new road come under fire

Earlier this month, Calderdale Council cabinet approved “in principle” using compulsory purchase powers to secure land which would become a link road for a proposed new business park at Clifton, Brighouse.

The placing of the road puzzled some scrutiny councillors, who said a map had not been provided to the decision-making senior councillors, and queried where exactly it would be.

Conservative councillors had “called-in” for scrutiny two decisions relating to Clifton, arguing the issues had major financial implications and needed debating by the full council.

Cabinet had also agreed to submit a £600,000 bid to West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) Employment Land Accelerator Fund to fund the next stages of work for the Clifton Business Park.

Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) said the proposals were of massive importance.

If councillors did not know exactly where it would go, that brought costs into question.

“Do we really want to push through massive legislation, which this is part of, without knowing where it goes, what it’s going to cost, where it starts?” said Coun Leigh.

The link road is also described as a key part of supporting infrastructure for a proposed garden community at nearby Thornhills.

Coun Helen Brundell (Lab, Todmorden) said an overarching point was the council was often criticised for not thinking about infrastructure for new developments.

“I think here we have something which is putting that mechanism in place.

“Other areas are building industrial estates and we need to make sure we have the viability here to do the same,” she said.

The council’s director of regeneration and strategy, Shelagh O’Neill, agreed a map would have been helpful but the route was known – the link road would meet the A643 at America Lane and join the A644 just east of Locksley Road.

Cabinet member for Climate Action, Active Travel and Housing, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) told the board cabinet members were in command of all the facts.

Submitting a deputation on the funding cash for the business park, chair of Clifton Village Community Association, Jason Carlton, said the report omitted to mention “private and public sector failure” to develop the site over 30 years.

“There is a significant risk to Calderdale and it is disingenuous that these risks were not disclosed before the recommendation to seek approval was given,” he said.

Mr Carlton said the council previously said 850 jobs would be created by the business park, not the 1,300 posited in the papers to cabinet.

He added that the landowners in question had indicated they were more open to a mixed use of the land, where some housing could also be placed.

More land had been allocated for the business park than the Local Plan hearings heard was required, claimed Mr Carlton.

The council’s planning lead officer, Richard Seaman, said the Local Plan had the space allocated as employment land and it would be problematic to start re-writing aspects of the plan.

In terms of the larger size, the Planning Inspector said there was a need for flexibility, he said.

Ms O’Neill said the 1,300 jobs target was the ambition.