Bradford Local Plan

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Bradford, like all other local planning authorities, is required to produce a Local Development Plan for the whole district that sets down the policies and strategies that will apply in areas such as housing and employment. This Local Plan will run from 2015 to 2030 and is expected to be finally in place from early 2016. It is based upon detailed evidence of the housing and employment needs for the district and the necessary infrastructure required to support these activities. The Local Plan consists of a Core Strategy document that sets down the overall policies supported by a number of detailed planning documents. The evidence gathering started in 2008 and a number of the supplementary documents have been published from 2009 onwards. The Local Plan was originally called the Local Development Framework (LDF) and as the plan has taken so long to be completed there have been a number of changes to national planning guidelines during this development period.

The Core Strategy document sets down proposals for the minimum number of new houses in individual areas, such as Wilsden, along with the principles by which any revisions could be made to policies such as the Green Belt around our village. It does not make any specific proposals for particular areas where new housing could be located within Wilsden. For Wilsden and Harecroft it is proposed that 200 new houses will be required.

The development of the Local Plan has involved extensive consultation of the residents of the district and the Parish Council has been an active participant in this process both in terms of commenting on specific policies and updating the residents of the village about how these policies may affect them. We have made a number of specific proposals about how the policies of the Core Strategy could in our view be improved for Wilsden and Harecroft. Our formal written comments on the last published draft document are reproduced.

Bradford Council published their final version of the draft Local Plan Core Strategy in December 2014 and this was considered at a Public Inspection in March 2015. At this Public Inspection Bradford presented their policies to a government appointed Planning Inspector over a 10 day period and consultees had an opportunity raise their concerns. Parish councillors attended all the sessions dealing with policies of concern to Wilsden and spoke at the majority of these. The Inspector will use a written report on the Local Plan in autumn 2015 and propose necessary amendments.

In July 2017 Bradford Council adopted the Core Strategy of the Local Plan and started work on Housing Allocations. Details of the Local Plan can be found at https://www.bradford.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/adopted-local-plan/. Simultaneously with work proceeding on Housing Allocations the method for deciding the overall housing targets for the district changed and there was a need for a review of and amendments to the adopted Local Plan.

In January 2021 Bradford Council published a first draft of an integrated Local Plan that included housing site allocations. The period for this plan was from 2020 to 2038 and identified a need for a further 125 houses in addition to the 93 already built since 2013.