A CIVIC society is urging Kirklees Council to hold back on using so much of the green belt in the Spen Valley when it comes to allocating land for housing and employment for the next 15 years.

Residents across Kirklees have been able to have their say on the draft Local Plan during an extended consultation, which ended earlier this month.

The blueprint will eventually set out how development is managed across the district until 2031, with studies showing that a total of 29,000 new homes and 32,000 new jobs are needed in that period.

But members of Spen Valley Civic Society are concerned that the area is being expected to take more than its fair share of development under current proposals.

Secretary Erica Amende said in its submission: "The draft Local Plan proposals for housing development in Spen Valley will result in the use of approximately 58 ha of land to build some 1,750 new homes. This is a massive number considering the limited size of the valley, and even more so when recent house building is considered."

She added: "SVCS is particularly concerned about the amount of green belt land which the Council intends to use."

Of employment land, she added: "Most of the Local Plan’s proposed employment development sites of any significant size are to be located in the Spen Valley, and all of the larger sites are currently green belt."

She said that more than 100 hectares of green belt land would be lost to employment in the Spen Valley if these proposed allocations were accepted, compared to a loss of around 20 hectares across the rest of the district.

They added that too much emphasis was being given to providing new sites close to the M62.

Councillor Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem, Cleckheaton), has also expressed her fears that the area, especially in the vicinity of Chain Bar, has a number of large sites in the current proposals.

"We have been working with residents affected by all these sites to encourage them to make their voices heard and we will support their concerns, as we share them."

Key sites include green belt land at Merchant Fields, Hunsworth Lane, in Cleckheaton for a mixed use development of 318 homes or 4,655 square metres of employment use and the former North Bierley waste water treatment works, Cliff Hollins Lane, in Cleckheaton, that could offer 49,000 sq m of employment land.

Batley & Spen MP Jo Cox welcomed the blueprint and its aim to create the jobs and homes that the district will need, but said the council must give serious thought to the points raised by groups such as Spen Valley Civic Society.

Mrs Cox said: “It is important that Kirklees takes the opportunity to accommodate the demand for future jobs and homes, and protect the borough from a planning free-for-all, which would be an undesirable alternative.

“The council must endeavour to do this while preserving the things that make Kirklees, and Batley & Spen in particular, desirable places to live in the first place. It can only do that by listening to local residents.”