A two-year controversy is to come to a conclusion within weeks as a decision is due on a development in Harwood.

Applicant Oak Tree Ltd applied for planning permission for land on Longsight Lane next to Longsight Park in 2022.

Initially it was an application for more than two dozen houses but after amendments it is an application for 20 houses on what is Other Protected Open Land. This is a level of protection higher than the protection for most land but lower than the protection for other land which is in the green belt.

There is opposition in the form of hundreds of letters to the local authority as well as petitions, protests and public meetings over two years but all of this is outweighed by housing shortages according to a report to the Planning Committee at the town hall next week.

The report said: "As a result of the lack of an adequate housing supply the policies [on Other Protected Open Land] are out of date and can carry no weight in decision-making. The lack of an adequate housing supply carries significant weight in decision-making."

(Image: Newsquest) Dr Jane Wilcock, the chair of Friends of Harwood and Longsight Park, said she and others are "devastated" and "disappointed".

A number of opponents are to turn out at the council chamber and one of them, Chris Nash, is to argue against the development.

Dr Wilcock, a retired GP, said: "There are a lot of local people who are devastated these houses will be built because of the lack of an adequate housing supply although it is a corridor between the Bradshaw Brook part and the Castle Croft part of the Site of Biological Importance.

"We are disappointed and it looks like it is our Watership Down moment because it looks like they will bring in the bulldozers. A lot of people will say it is nimbyism but it is not nimbyism."

The Planning Committee is recommended to approve the application in principle referring it to the Director of Place, Jon Dyson, to approve a Section 106 Agreement with Oak Tree Ltd.

The Planning Committee is at the town hall next week.

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.