THERE must be great relief at City Hall that Bradford appears set to escape direct intervention from Whitehall over its planning policy.

Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has announced that the Government has lost patience with those councils which have so far failed to publish their Local Plans –blueprints for future land use – promising it will move in and do so itself if the situation doesn’t change by early 2017.

But that is not to say the formulation of Bradford’s Local Plan hasn’t been without its difficulties. It has been under consideration and discussion for a very long time and the approved version is still be finalised – a process which is not expected to be completed until 2017.

That has led to criticism by opposition councillors that in the meantime developers are circling round green field sites in the district, knowing that the lack of a Local Plan considerably weakens the Council’s hand in refusing them planning permission.

Allocating land use for housing and employment is a vital part of any local authorities’ role in ensuring future prosperity. But, as in Bradford’s case, where upwards of 42,000 new homes are forecast to be needed by 2030, it is especially important that is carried out as sympathetically as possible and not at the cost of unnecessarily blighting previously undeveloped sites.

Local knowledge in deciding which areas can be built over is an essential element of that process and it is to be welcomed that Bradford looks set to remain in control.

Better the devil you know.