Neighbourhood forum crowd funds legal challenge to adoption by council of Local Plan

A neighbourhood planning forum has raised more than £11,000 in a bid to fund an application to the High Court for permission for a judicial review over Calderdale Council’s decision to adopt its Local Plan.

The Clifton Neighbourhood Forum said “an overwhelming number and majority” of its members had confirmed in a formal vote that they believed this was the right thing to do.

On its Crowd Justice page, the Forum claimed the work and detailed evidence of its professional advisers had shown Calderdale's Plan was flawed.

“We included all relevant evidence within our formal submissions, and it's been ignored; we're undertaking this action because the plan is: unsustainable, undeliverable and will result in unjustified and needless permanent removal of land from the Green Belt, even though the council admits that the majority of the land to be removed is no longer needed to meet housing needs,” it said.

The Forum will also argue that the council's modelling of the traffic impacts was “seriously flawed”.

It said: “Even their own consultants admit their modelling shows lower levels of existing traffic than they themselves have observed, whilst their own evidence shows their model fails Dept of Transport validation criteria, a fact they have refused to accept. 

“The modelling therefore suggests, wrongly, that thousands of additional houses and substantial additional commercial development will somehow not have any impacts on poor local road networks which are already highly congested. The same flawed modelling is used as the basis to claim that air quality will not be worsened.”

The Forum claimed there remains “huge uncertainty over what additional highway and transport infrastructure improvements are proposed and over whether such infrastructure can be funded and delivered”.

The Forum has raised more than £11,000 as of today (3 May) towards a £20,000 stretch target.

Law firm Harrison Clark Rickerbys is advising on the case.

Calderdale Council has been approached for comment.