THE number of new homes expected to be built in Haworth between now and 2030 has fallen significantly.

Bradford Council has revealed changes to its blueprint for how the district's land will be used over coming years.

The number of houses planned for Haworth has dropped from 500 to 400.

But in Silsden the new figure is 1,200, up by 200 from the initial draft of the Local Plan.

People can have their say from Wednesday (Nov 25) on changes to the plan for how the district's land will be used over coming years.

The plan will eventually guide where houses, businesses and leisure and retail developments are built for the next ten to 20 years. It will be used by the local authority when deciding on planning applications.

The Core Strategy of the Local Plan was submitted to the Government almost a year ago and hearings followed in March resulting in the current changes.

The overall number of homes needed in Bradford district by 2030 remains the same at 42,100 under the latest draft, but some areas will have more homes, while others will have fewer.

Andrew Marshall, Bradford Council's planning and transport strategy manager, said some areas needed to be reviewed which resulted in a "slight redistribution" of where houses could be built.

He said Heritage England raised issues around Haworth and the World Heritage Site in Saltaire, leading to fewer homes being planned there.

Consultation on the changes runs for eight weeks and is required before the Core Strategy can be formally adopted.

Initial consultation on the final part of the Local Plan, the allocations development plan document where sites are earmarked for different types of development, will begin in the next couple of months.

Mr Marshall said: "The core strategy doesn't allocate the land, but it sets out how much and where and other policies. All of the land, other than in the two area action plans and the waste development plan document, will be allocated during the allocations development plan document phase.

"This is where we will allocate land for housing and jobs in line with the core strategy."

Mr Marshall added that he expected to have everything apart from the allocations document adopted by the Government's deadline of early 2017. He said the criteria for this was not clear, but Bradford would be well on the way to having the whole plan adopted.

He said: "If we are well on track with the allocations document at submission stage, we think it is highly unlikely that the Government would intervene."

Documents highlighting the proposed changes, together with the reasons for the changes will be available at main council offices and main libraries from Wednesday. They will also be available online at bradford.gov.uk/ldf.

Comments will be submitted to the independent government inspector Stephen Pratt for his consideration.