BRADFORD Council’s Local Plan Core Strategy looks set to be formally adopted following its release from a Temporary Holding Direction.

Former Government Minister of State for Housing and Planning Gavin Barwell has now written to the Council releasing the Core Strategy and allowing its progress through the next stage of adoption. The Local Plan sets out the blueprint for development in the district for the next 12 to15 years.

It is mainly concerned with housing but it also covers other infrastructure such as highways, employment, education and leisure.

The Core Strategy does not identify specific development sites but sets out the principle housing allocations for different settlements and areas for which land will need to be identified.

The Core Strategy had already been approved by a Government Planning Inspector before it was delayed by the actions of the Minister at the behest of Shipley MP Philip Davies who was concerned about plans for houses on the green belt in Wharfedale.

If Bradford Council’s Executive, which meets at City Hall on June 20, votes to adopt the plan, followed by adoption by the Full Council in July, the Core Strategy will become a key document in determining planning applications in the district to 2030.

Coun Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “This is good news for the Bradford District as it means we can get on with adopting the Core Strategy.

“We have worked long and hard on behalf of our residents to ensure that future development in the district complies with Government-set target of 42,100 new homes while causing the least harm to the green belt.

"The Plan is sustainable and prioritises brownfield sites. Before the Holding Direction was issued, a Government Planning Inspector had already indicated that the plan was essentially sound.

“Now the Government has accepted the judgement of their own inspector, we can get on with the rest of the process to make sure that development in our district isn’t a developer free-for-all.”

Bradford Council Leader Coun Susan Hinchcliffe said: “From the outset everyone knew that the Local Plan obviously complied with all the planning rules set by Government and therefore it would have been odd for the Government to find their own rules defective.

“The only difference the Government’s bureaucratic intervention has made is that it has delayed the adoption of our plan by almost a year.

“The Secretary of State confirms our view that Green Belt should only be developed in exceptional circumstances. We agree. We have as much concern about the countryside and want to protect it as much as anyone else."

The documents are available to view on the Council’s website at: www.bradford.gov.uk/planningpolicy

Reference copies are also available for inspection at Ilkley library.