Chidswell Rally

My colleagues Cllr Judith Elliott and Tom Leadley joined me for the Chidswell Rally held last Saturday just over the Kirklees Border in Dewsbury. As readers will be aware, this greenbelt land is a proposed site for 1500 homes and large scale industrial development backed by Labour controlled Kirklees Council. As you would expect many people are very unhappy with this and over 1200 locals - including residents from Tingley and Morley - joined together to campaign against these proposals.

Any wide scale development at this location would have significant implications for Morley's schools, health centres and other community facilities with congestion worsening on Dewsbury Road.

Cllr Elliott addressed the rally and was greeted with a positive response when she confirmed the Morley Borough Independents opposition to plan contained within Kirklees LDF proposals. She also confirmed she would be attending Kirklees Council next Wednesday to speak against the plan. A decision will be taken at the same meeting.

Of course local Leeds Labour Councillors could not be bothered to attend neither could Morley's illustrious MP who was also absent. But that is no real surprise as Morley Labour Party back their RSS figures of over 4,000 homes a year. This can only be delivered by digging up greenfield sites such as Chidswell.

We will continue to battle against Labours LDF proposals. Opposition is growing and there is still everything to play for. We owe it to our communities to dig in for the long haul and defend all greenbelt land with all the vigour we can muster!