Local Plan: Planning bid goes in to build first 300 of what could be thousands of new homes in part of Calderdale

Bellway Homes (Yorkshire) and Malcolm and Melvyn Bretton have applied to Calderdale Council to build 308 new homes as part of one of two garden communities which are planned near Brighouse.

The homes, if approved, would form the first phase of a garden community at Thornhills on land to the west of Highmoor Lane, Clifton, Brighouse.

The garden communities – the other is at nearby Woodhouse – are among housing sites proposed in Calderdale Council’s Local Plan, which was approved last spring.

The Local Plan is particularly contested in south east parts of Calderdale where the lion’s share of almost 10,000 new homes could be built into the 2030s, and is still subject to a legal challenge by Clifton residents.

Agents ID Planning say in supporting documents the application also addresses associated infrastructure, open space and landscaping.

By the end of the phased homebuilding, the wider Thornhills garden suburb is expected to deliver around 1,998 homes with a new community centre and primary school.

Of this first phase – and documents with the full application, numbered 24/00251/FUL, can be viewed on the council’s planning portal – development would comprise 232 homes at market price and 76 “affordable” homes, says ID Planning.

It also says the developer has responded by tweaking the application to concerns raised about density of development, highways issues including access, wildlife, air pollution, flooding and infrastructure.