Controversial plans to build 26 homes on land at Brighouse – a 100 per cent affordable scheme – were approved by planning councillors to cries of “a farce” by upset objectors.

Calderdale Council’s Planning Committee heard developers Holcombe had been granted outline permission for 26 homes at land off Bowling Alley, Rastrick, in early 2023.

Councillors were told this established the principle of development and actions they could take were limited to the detail on scale, appearance and landscaping.

The application received 77 letters of objection and opponents of the scheme included ward councillors Regan Dickenson (Con, Rastrick) and Peter Judge (Lab, Rastrick), who had previously opposed the plans, the latter before he was a councillor.

Former Calder Valley MP, Conservative Craig Whittaker, also opposed the proposals while he was in office.

A spokesperson for objectors said allowing the “very controversial and contentious” scheme would mean losing one of the few remaining green spaces left in Rastrick.

“It provides an area of peace and tranquillity particularity for residents and people walking down the 400-year-old bridleway, which is the sole route connecting Rastrick Common and the Healey Wood area”, he said.

The land was used by badgers, foxes and hedgehogs, bats and owls were homes there and occasionally deer, said the spokesperson.

Concerns over “ridiculous” access via a narrow cul-de-sac remained, there were still flooding worries and the appearance and quality of the new homes would be incongruous, he said.

Coun Dickenson said the changed home designs – planning officers, recommending the scheme be approved with a legal agreement that 100 per cent of the homes, uplifted from ten per cent, would be affordable, said these being smaller was a benefit – looked like a way of “squeezing” them in.

Coun Judge described the application as “the most preposterous planning application I have ever seen” and was critical of the new smaller size of the proposed homes.

Councillors noted the borough’s Local Plan for housing passed last year earmarked the site for just ten homes but officers said the outline permission for 26 houses, 17 for affordable rent and nine shared ownership, secured by legal agreement, predated that.

Members asked questions about the homes being ten per cent smaller and expressed concerns this made them below nationally prescribed standards, with “overcrowding” issues, and worried about the impact on nature.

But after hearing from legal officers they said they were constrained by the outline permission already being given and saw some advantages to the project.

Coun David Kirton (Con, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe) said councillors could only consider what was in front of them now and and light of that he could see nothing wrong with the plans.

And Coun Helen Brundell (Lab, Todmorden) said of the homes: “A hundred per cent affordable is fantastic.”