PLANNERS have reined back on approving a contentious housing scheme earmarked for an ancient floodplain in Mirfield. But it’s not because of flood risk. Instead many of the houses planned have been found to be too small. Local campaigners have fought for more than 18 months to stop Wakefield-based developer Miller Homes building 67 houses on a watermeadow off Granny Lane in Hopton Bottom, which regularly floods during heavy rain. Building on the “challenging site”, which is allocated for housing within Kirklees Council’s Local Plan, was approved in December 2019. At that meeting Labour councillor Carole Pattison , who sits on the authority’s Strategic Planning Committee, said: “We are strapped for housing. The houses are protected. I think it’s worth the risk and I think that’s what the developer has decided.”