The Government’s minister for planning will visit the district tomorrow to address concerns that his policies are leading to swathes of countryside being built on.

Nick Boles will visit Addingham and Menston during the trip requested by Conservative MPs Kris Hopkins and Philip Davies.

Various groups in Addingham and Ilkley have already raised concerns about the number of houses proposed for green land in the north of the Bradford district.

And the Menston Action Group was recently unsuccessful in its attempt to stop two housing developers gaining permission for 330 houses on village fields.

Under Mr Boles’ current policies, Councils will have to ensure a steady supply of housing is built each year, and to achieve this Bradford Council has granted planning permission for various housing estates on green land.

Later this year, the Council is due to release its local plan, which allocates future housing sites – many of which are expected to be on greenfield sites.

Meanwhile many brownfield sites have remained untouched by developers, who say they are not economically viable or deliverable.

Mr Boles will defend the coalition government’s policies on Thursday.

He meets with groups in Addingham at a meeting hosted by Addingham Civic Society and Mr Hopkins. After this he will talk to the Menston Action Group and Mr Davies. Parish councillors have been invited to both meetings.

Peter Wilkinson, of Addingham Civic Society says government pressure on Bradford Council was forcing it to make the wrong decisions on housing sites, and that the building of large houses in his area “did nothing” for low income families in Bradford who need homes.

He said: “Bradford is different because of the social, and economic issues, and the fact it has lots of brownfield sites. Very few of them are being offered up for housing. Bradford requires special measures compared with other parts of the country.

“We don’t argue for no housing in Wharfedale, but for so much of Bradford’s growth to take place here doen’t meet the needs of people in Bradford. If you leave it up to this policy you will have a lot of massive houses on greenfield sites.”

Mr Davies said: “I asked him to come here because I am as appalled as Menston residents about these applications, and I wanted them to get the opportunity to explain their unhappiness to him. We need to make sure something like this doesn’t arise again.”

He said development on countryside land was the biggest issue he had come across as Shipley MP.

Coun Adrian Naylor (Craven) is ward councillor for the area, and said: “Residents will have the chance to point out that the one size fits all policy towards planning is not that appropriate for Bradford.”