Green Belt land is saved..in the main

From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Tuesday 23rd Nov 2004.

Vast tracts of the district's green space are expected to move a step closer to protection next week when Bradford Council's new planning blueprint comes up for approval.

The 15-year plan includes recommendations made by a Government inspector in July many of which will see the threat of development removed from open spaces.

Bradford Council planners have largely accepted the recommendations of the nine-month-long public hearing held last year which cost the authority more than £1 million.

It looked again at the Council's proposed Unitary Development Plan (UDP) which shapes how the district will develop over the next decade and examined 700 issues - the majority of which were about using fields for housing.

The Council is expected to accept that Denholme Road in Oxenhope, Manor Garth in Addingham and Jenny Lane in Baildon should no longer be set aside for housing.

Richard Lang, chairman of the Jenny Lane Action Group, said: "I welcome this news and hope that it gets through to final UDP without any further problems."

However, controversial Council recommendations which have been supported by the inspector, such as the plan to keep Sty Lane at Micklethwaite, Bingley, earmarked for housing after 2008, still stand.

This has always been opposed by the Greenhill Action Group, but its treasurer Pauline Wood admitted: "We are relieved that the Council has accepted this recommendation because it gives us a breathing space to fight on."

The inspector's recommendation to ease pressure on outlying villages like Silsden has also been accepted with areas on the outskirts of Bradford city centre taking up the slack.

However, for legal reasons, planners have not accepted his recommendation that the Silsden land be moved into the greenbelt. Instead it will be "safeguarded" for the life of the present plan - effectively undeveloped till 2014.

Following legal advice, the authority is also refusing to accept that sites at Beechcliffe and Royd Ings in Keighley be designated for development since they lie within a floodplain. Executive member for the environment, Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, said: "This plan represents a good compromise between the Council's original plan and the inspector's recommended changes.

"We cannot pick and choose from the inspector's recommendations and have only rejected them where there is a strong legal basis to do so. It is important that this revised plan is now adopted by the Council to ensure that the positive aspects within it can be retained."

If accepted by the Council's executive a week today the modifications will be available for public comment for six weeks, though any further changes are limited by law.

Coun Hawkesworth said: "Hopefully a final version of the UDP can then be adopted as soon as possible, to allow us to move forward confidently with the regeneration and development of the district."

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