COUNCIL highways experts have objected to plans to build 55 homes on green fields in Cleckheaton, which are owned by the authority itself.

Kirklees Council has lodged an outline scheme for the 1.68 hectare site off Kenmore Drive.

Residents and local councillors have raised road fears and now the authority’s highways department has been consulted over the scheme.

Highways officer Mark Berry states that while the proposed access by means of extending the cul-de-sac of Kenmore Drive is acceptable in principle, existing on-street parking is a concern.

“Evidence suggests the existence of on-street parking with cars parked opposite each other on both sides of the carriageway, this reducing the effective useable carriageway width of 3.2m.

“The existence of other on-street parking within Kenmore Drive would create additional issues with highway safety and efficiency with the introduction of the proposed development traffic utilising Kenmore Drive.

“The issue has not been assessed or addressed within the submitted Transport Statement.”

Local councillor Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem, Cleckheaton) said this exact issue was one of the points local residents and ward councillors had been raising with the authority.

“It’s not a surprise that highways have said this is not acceptable,” she said. “It’s already a narrow road with parking often on both sides.

“Some existing homes do not have their own off-road parking, so parking on the street is to be expected.

“There is no way you could use that road as access for 55 more homes.

She added that Kenmore Drive leads on to Kenmore Road, which was one of the first roads in Kirklees where traffic calming measures were introduced due to the volume of traffic and its speed - which was around 20 to 25 years ago.

The land has been owned by the Council for a number of years and had at one point been earmarked for a new school.

For the last two decades it has been allocated for housing.

A planning statement accompanying the scheme states that the development could contain a mix of detached and semi-detached homes.

A Kirklees Council spokesman confirmed earlier: “An outline planning application has recently been submitted for the land off Kenmore Drive, Cleckheaton.

“This application is currently being consulted on and no decision has been made. The Council as the landowner is entitled to apply for planning permission on its own land. The application will be considered in the usual way, and the decision on the application will be made by the appropriate planning committee.”

No date has been set for the plans to go before a committee for a decision.