The 0.8-hectare site on Croft Street and backing onto Birkenshaw Liberal Club previously housed a bowling green and allotments.
A meeting heard that the land had fallen victim to fly-tipping over the years and had become overgrown. It was one of the assets sold off by Kirklees Council in recent auctions.
The new properties will be two-storey and have a range of two, three and four bedrooms, and be accessible from Old Lane via Croft Street.
A mixed response was received from locals, with 41 representations submitted to the Council, made up of both supporting and objecting comments.
Paul Frain, co-founder and director of Riva Homes, which has been building properties in Kirklees for the past decade, explained: “In brief, we’ve created a policy compliant scheme and gone the extra mile to listen to concerned locals.
“The site has been subject to fly-tipping for what appears to be many years.
“No soils on the site are fit for re-use due to high asbestos levels, and the small amount of Japanese knotweed mentioned in the sales brochure was in fact 1,100 tonnes of materials that needed to be removed at a cost of £60,000.
“The knotweed works are now complete, and the site is free from this invasive weed.
“These unforeseen abnormal costs, along with others are what prompted us to do a commercial viability assessment on the site.
“Riva Homes Ltd is not a PLC volume housebuilder. We’re a local, privately owned SME housebuilder trying to survive in a difficult industry and challenging times.”
Councillor Mark Thompson (Con, Birstall and Birkenshaw) said: “Even though all the ward councillors in Birkenshaw feel that Birkenshaw has been, like many other wards, overdeveloped over the last few years, this feels as right as a development can be as far as the ward’s concerned.
“The developer – we’ve met in public meetings a few times – I think they’ve bent over backwards as far as dealing with the idiosyncrasies of this site and the overdevelopment that planning originally wanted on the site…”
Cllr Thompson also had a couple of questions, including whether the liberal club would still be able to receive its deliveries, get its bins collected and allow for visitor parking during construction. The meeting heard that these kinds of details would be set out in a ‘Construction Management Plan’, which had been provided as part of the application.
Members agreed to amend the plan to include a dedicated section to ensure the operation of the liberal club throughout development.
Cllr Cathy Scott (Community Alliance, Dewsbury East) said she was “totally supportive” of the scheme providing housing for local people, as were Cllrs Mohan Sokhal (Labour, Greenhead) and Andrew Pinnock (Lib Dems, Cleckheaton).
Councillor Bill Armer (Con, Kirkburton) reiterated his stance in favour of development on brownfield sites.
He added: “It takes pressure off our nice greenfields and indeed this particular area has been crying out for redevelopment for a long time.”
When it came to the vote, the panel was unanimously in favour of the plans. The application had several conditions attached, including that three of the homes are affordable, there is a £57k contribution to off-site public open space and that £10k goes to funding waiting restrictions at the site access onto Old Lane.