Highways England has concerns over Kirklees Council’s plans for up to 2,000 new homes in Bradley, it has emerged.

The body which looks after the country’s major road network, including motorways, has fears over the impact of extra traffic on the M62 junctions at 24 and 25.

Highways England’s potential objection was revealed at a meeting of Kirklees Council’s Strategic Planning Committee on Thursday.

Councillors were given advanced sight of plans by Redrow Homes to build 270 new houses on agricultural land at Bradley Villa Farm off Bradley Road.

The privately-owned site is next to a large swathe of land – including part of Bradley Park Golf Course – which the council owns and plans to build 1,500 houses on.

The land was been allocated for housing as part of the Local Plan. As part of the scheme the 18-hole council-owned golf course will be reduced to nine holes. It was also planned to build a new primary school to serve the development.

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Councillors were told that the council’s original ‘Bradley Masterplan’ was drawn up in 2017 and much had changed in that time including plans for a re-modelling of the Cooper Bridge roundabout and traffic flow changes on the A62 Leeds Road at Bradley.

The meeting was also told that the developers would have to pay £827,280 towards improvements at Bradley Bar roundabout.

Access to the Redrow estate would be via Bradford Road. However, the developers offered no detail on what the new junction would look like and whether there would be a right turn out across the dual carriageway road. If it was a left turn only more pressure would be put on the busy Bradley Road.

The housing site between Bradley Road and the M62

Clr James Homewood (Lab, Ashbrow) said the Local Plan decision had already meant green belt land had been lost to the development but he said drainage infrastructure from the proposed estate would see a further incursion into the green belt out towards the M62.

He said “very much has changed” with regards to proposals for Cooper Bridge and that must have an impact.

A report to the committee said that Highways England “recommend that planning permission not be granted” and the impact on junctions 24 and 25 be assessed.

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There was no more detail about their objection and Clr Charles Greaves (Ind, Holme Valley North) said the council would need a lot more information before it could go against an objection from Highways England. He also wanted a detailed drawing of the access into Bradford Road.

Clr Donna Bellamy (Con, Colne Valley) also had concerns over the road network and described the design of the houses as “awful.”

Council officers said there was a long way to go before the application could be considered for approval.