The row at East Bierley could develop into high farce if Council planners insist that six families turn part of the gardens they have cultivated over more than three years back to grazing land. It will be the sort of triumph for bureaucracy over common sense that makes national newspaper headlines.

Hopefully, with the Mayor of Kirklees now coming out on their side, common sense will prevail and they will be allowed to keep their patios, lawns and flower beds. It is unfortunate that it has come to this, but it does not reflect badly on the Council. Once a member of the public had tipped it off that former agricultural land had been cultivated by the householders, who say that when they bought it they were not told that planning permission would be needed, it had no choice other than to take action.

This is Green Belt land in a pretty village - a rural pocket relatively close to the heart of Bradford. Any change of use needs to be taken seriously.

The question members of Kirklees planning committee need to ask themselves, now that retrospective planning permission has been applied for, is whether the change has been so dramatic as to merit their insistence that the land be reinstated to what it was before - farm land.

It is no longer agricultural land, certainly, but by being used for horticulture it remains "green". It would be a very different matter if houses had been built on it.

The Mayor has promised the families a "fair hearing". Let us hope, for their sakes, that it results in a sympathetic decision.

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