The “jewel in Bradford’s tourism crown” will turn from “gold to tin” if draft plans for hundreds of homes in the Worth Valley are approved, a councillor has warned.

The chairman of Haworth Parish Council, John Huxley, is urging residents and ward councillors to fight proposals for up to 986 homes in the Pennine village, best known as the home of the Bronte sisters and which attracts thousands of tourists every year.

Bradford Council has earmarked 14 sites in Haworth as suitable for development in the first stage of producing its Local Development Framework (LDF).

Coun Huxley said: “People in Haworth have been shocked at the number of houses they want to build here. We have understood for some time that developers want to put houses here because it is a nice place to live but a some point we will reach a level where we change the nature of Haworth from a Pennine settlement to a small town that is a suburb of Keighley.

“One of the main ways people earn a living in Haworth is in the tourist industry. In the LDF it says the Council wants to protect the landscape and tourism but that isn’t consistent with building hundreds of houses. The Council has said Haworth is the jewel in its tourism crown but are they prepared to turn it from gold to tin? That is basically what the choice is.

“This is a very sensitive area. English Heritage has identified it as a special area which is already under threat from inappropriate tourist signs. There is a lot of work to do if we are going to create jobs. Putting more than 900 houses in Haworth is the quickest way of killing that.”

Bradford Council has to find room for 45,500 new homes throughout the district by 2028. Areas available for possible housing schemes have been identified in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) and the proposals are under public consultation. The document will form part of Bradford’s Local Development Framework – a key document which will shape the future of house building in the district.