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Friday April 15, 2016
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No. 733
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Hunters ‘sells’ luxury Hyrstlands scheme – without planning consent
ZAMAN’S CUNNING PLAN... By Staff Reporters DEWSBURY businessman Tahir ‘Terry’ Zaman is courting controversy again with a property development scheme wreathed in murky claims over planning permission. Hunters estate agents in Dewsbury are marketing the land on Track Road in Batley, adjacent to the Al Hikmah Centre, stating that 50 per cent of the housing plots have already been sold. A man saying he was “Ash from Hunters in Dewsbury” said this week that Terry Zaman already has permission for three plots, and claimed that planning officers “advised him to go for three first, and then go for seven later”. The man told a journalist posing as a potential customer: “Terry ... he’s quite friendly with the planning officers”. The franchisee of Hunters is
Ashraf Esat, who refers to himself as Ash and was previously a conveyancer for Musa Patel Solicitors in Bradford Road. Kirklees however denies planning permission has been granted. Indeed the pending application from Zaman and his business partner Imran Ul-Haq – owner of Apollo Beds in Liversedge – is for four plots, not three. Through his lawyers, Mr Zaman has denied any wrongdoing, and distanced himself from large ‘fake’ shopfronts at The Courts banqueting suites, formerly the Batley & Dewsbury Magistrates Court, also being marketed by Hunters. A sales board at the entrance of
Terry Zaman (left) and the controversial property schemes at Track Road, Batley, and The Courts, Dewsbury part of the former Hyrstlands estate calls the Track Road development ‘Hyrstlands Close’, complete with images of luxury houses, a claim that 50 per cent of the plots have been sold, plus a Hunters number and a mobile contact. One nearby resident rang The Press saying they had not seen any planning notices. The man, who did not want to be
named, said: “I’ve spoken to my neighbours and this was news to us. “If planning notices were put up, then someone must have taken them down pretty quickly.” Kirklees planning officials said notices were definitely erected and all neighbouring residents had received a letter too. The public consultation ran from last July to September without any objections from residents being received. Delays are due to conservation,
access and environmental issues. The land in question was previously owned by disgraced Kozee Sleep owner Mohammed Rafiq, jailed recently for human trafficking. It was part of his Hick Lane Properties portfolio and appears to have been sold off to his brother-inlaw Terry Zaman, plus Mr Ul-Haq, before Rafiq’s companies crashed last year. When first contacted Hunters said
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