A COUNCIL leader has been urged to detail his involvement in plans for what is believed to be a massive Amazon distribution centre in Kirklees after backing promised employment at the site.

Shabir Pandor, who leads Kirklees Council, said the authority had ambitions to attract “big anchor institutions” to the borough and that he was trying his best to secure 1,500 jobs attached to the proposal.

The plan, for a 59-acre site at Scholes near Cleckheaton close to the M62, has been controversial ever since it was unveiled in June.

It has yet to come to committee but already local people, who have set up an action group, councillors and recently-elected Batley and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater have been active in their opposition.

But there are fears that the huge facility is already a “done deal” after Clr Pandor appeared to give it his support.

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on Tuesday he said the authority had “big ambitions” for jobs and skills, which meant ensuring “the right businesses are located in the right places.”

Amazon linked to storage and distribution warehouse plans at Chain Bar, Cleckheaton

In a direct reference to the Amazon development, which could employ around 1,500 people, he said: “You’ll also be aware that we’re going to have a big distribution company coming into Kirklees.

“I’m trying my best to actually get the one-and-a-half thousand jobs in place.

“Having said that my job is made a lot more harder because there are people who will, quite rightly from their point of view, object. So it’s very, very important that we have that big ambition … where big organisations can come and make big impact.”

He comments prompted a furious backlash, with one critic saying his comments smacked of pre-determination and that Clr Pandor, who represents Batley West for Labour, was “not fit” to be council leader.

Action group Save Our Spen said: “Clr Pandor’s comments cast grave doubts on the integrity of the planning process.

“[This is] a process that is supposed to be independent and unbiased with no undue influences applied to the strategic planning committee.

“His comments indicate otherwise, and for the sake of transparency and in the public interest, Clr Pandor should now give details of what his actual involvement, at all stages, has been in this particular planning process.”

Liberal Democrat peer and local councillor Baroness Kath Pinnock, whose Cleckheaton ward includes the Amazon site, said she was variously “appalled”, “outraged” and “really angry” at Clr Pandor’s statement.

“The man is not fit to be leader of the council,” she said, “and reason is the comments he made. He should know better.

“It’s right and proper for a leader of the council to have an ambition for employment and high-paid jobs.

“But it’s the council’s policy to create high-paid and skilled jobs, not minimum wage employment that Amazon offers.”

Reacting further to Clr Pandor’s comments, she added: “People have been saying to me that the council have decided already. I have said that we have a fair system, and that it will go to committee.

“His comments totally undermine the democratic process and the independence of the planning decision.

“It smacks of pre-determination.

“No member of the Cabinet should sit on the planning committee.

’If they have already decided as a Cabinet then they should not be a part of the decision-making process.

“It’s absolutely outrageous. If he wants Amazon he can have it somewhere in his own part of Batley.

“I am not having it in Cleckheaton.”