Local Plan: Councillors will be asked to adopt guidance for 3,000 new homes in Calderdale

The supplementary planning documents will also more widely inform what Calderdale Council expects of developers wanting to build new homes which are much needed but need to be the right ones, said leader of the council, Coun Jane Scullion.

If a meeting of the full council agrees, the detailed documents will operate alongside a council’s Local Plan to ensure planners, councillors and developers know what is expected from applications which could see thousands of new homes built.

The documents have used consultation responses to make some changes relating to proposed garden communities at Thornhills and Woodhouse, both near Brighouse.

If developed – in phases, over a period of around a decade – these could see 1,937 homes built at the former and 1,037 at the latter.

The guidance which will be in place in tandem with the Local Plan will tell developers what sort of homes the council wants to see in the borough, Coun Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) told colleagues.

The Brighouse garden community documents are an example setting out detail on matters from the width of a footpath to the look and type of homes, showing how building closed to existing communities can work, also addressing infrastructure issues, she has said previously.

Each of the two garden communities will have a local centre, a community school, playgrounds with picnic areas, and a mobility hub taking in things like e-bike charging points, bus stops with real-time information and boxes for internet shopping, if schemes get planning permission.

Calderdale’s demographics are changing and it sets out requirement for a proportion of homes to be suitable for people downsizing or wanting to get a foot on the housing ladder, she told the council’s cabinet.

Cabinet member for Climate Action, Active Travel and Housing, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) urged people to take a look at the design guides which showed ambitions for what the garden communities might look like.

The Local Plan itself is facing a legal challenge from a community group, with the council defending its decision to adopt the plan.