COUNCIL bosses have accused Shipley MP Philip Davies of unnecessarily holding up a major planning blueprint for the district.

The Executive on Tuesday endorsed the core strategy of its 15-year local plan, which sets out where new homes and businesses should be built and includes the development of some land currently in the green belt.

Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said they had been ready to endorse it around nine months ago, but Mr Davies had caused “a dramatic halt to proceedings” by reporting it to Government ministers. She said it was now back before them, “unchanged”.

But Mr Davies said he made no apology for fighting the loss of green belt land.

He said, contrary to the Council’s claims that the Government was content with the strategy, it had given them a “shot across the bows” over plans to release green belt land for development.