BRADFORD is likely to escape Whitehall intervention over its planning policy after ministers lost patience with foot-dragging local councils.

A strict deadline of “early 2017” has been set for all town halls to produce robust ‘local plans’, dictating where development is allowed and prohibited.

If councils fail to act – ten years after first being urged to do so – the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will “intervene to arrange for the plan to be written”.

And in ministers’ sights are Calderdale, Kirklees and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which have failed to submit the detailed blueprints, say ministers.

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But Bradford Council – which has been criticised in the past for acting too slowly – insisted it would pass the new test set by ministers.

Councillor Val Slater, its deputy leader, said: "Bradford Council is making good progress with its local plan.

"The Core Strategy which contains how many new homes, how many new jobs and the broad principles has recently been examined by the Government's planning inspectorate and is nearing the end of the process.

“The Council has also produced documents on the city centre, Canal Road corridor and area actions plans for the rest of the district and these are at various stages so it is too early to give a date for implementation.”

The National Park Authority hit back, insisting it would publish its plan next week and criticising ministers for moving the goalposts on planning.

Its plan is likely to be controversial, because it will allow people from outside the area to snap up homes for the first time, a so-called ‘open market’ policy.

Half of homes at sites where more than six units are being built will be available for non-locals, in return for developers stumping up cash for more affordable homes elsewhere.

The National Trust has led criticism that areas without local plans are at the mercy of developers with greater licence to gobble up the countryside.

That is because the fate of green land is then decided according to the controversial 2012 National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF), which favours development.

Across England, 82 per cent of authorities have published local plans, but a total of 59 have not.

Brandon Lewis, the Planning Minister, said: “Local authorities have had more than a decade to produce a local plan. Most have done so.

“In cases where no local plan has been produced by early 2017, we will intervene to arrange for the plan to be written, in consultation with local people.”