Calderdale's Local Plan has cost £1.2m to produce, councillors told

The controversial proposals, which were adopted by councillors in the spring, will determine where thousands of new homes and businesses can be built into the 2030s.

The Government was making it clear councils cannot opt out of having a Local Plan, said the leader of Calderdale Council, Coun Jane Scullion at a recent council meeting.

She was responding to Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) who asked about the council freezing recruitment of staff and undertaking a review of non-staff spending to face budget challenges.

Coun Leigh asked cabinet to confirm how much money had been spent on the Local Plan to date.

His request included expenditure on external planning consultants, he said.

Coun Leigh also asked if cabinet believed there was enough affordable and particularly accessible housing included in the Local Plan.

Coun Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said some work on the plan had been ongoing for about 10 years and confirmed that to date from available earliest expenditure figures from 2017-18 to now £1.214 million had been spent, according to the relevant ledger codes.

This also included on ongoing supplement planning documents. She said: “It’s not all on the core Local Plan.”

She said the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, was standing “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the council over a judicial review which has been called over the plan after a legal complaint from Clifton Neighbourhood Forum.

Benefits the Local Plan brought included planning policies against which to assess applications were up-to-date, she said.

“It does mean that we can now resist poor quality development and facilitate the development we know our communities and businesses badly need.

“We’ve noted with interest the Secretary of State had taken steps to intervene where other councils have taken steps to withdraw their plans from examination.

"It is therefore not the case that councils can opt not to have a Local Plan,” she said.

She said issues of affordable and accessible homes were considered by the planning inspector during hearings into the proposed plan .