Work on a housing estate has hit a setback part-way through construction, after Bradford Council said efforts to prove the land won’t flood were not good enough.

Plans for 27 houses on land next to Airedale House, in Micklethwaite, Bingley, were approved last March, but only on the condition that applicant Chartford Homes provide detailed reports on issues such as drainage and materials that will be used on the site.

Work started shortly after permission was granted but the reports were only submitted in March. Planning officers have now told the company the details it have submitted are not good enough.

The Council says the company took a “risk” in building on the site before making sure it had full planning permission.

Council officers said details of a proposed highway ‘soakaway’ submitted by the company lacked important details, and were not a “true representation of ground conditions in this location”.

The site, next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, is opposite another proposed housing development, in which the Secretary of State is currently deciding whether to give the go-ahead to 440 houses on fields off Sty Lane.

A spokesman for Bradford Council said: “We have requested more information from the applicants about the drainage issues near to the proposed highway soakaway. “All works carried out at the site prior to the discharge of relevant planning conditions attached to a planning decision are undertaken at the applicant’s own risk.”

Terry Brown – chairman of the Greenhill Action Group, set up to oppose the Sty Lane plans, and which also objected to planned housing on this site – said: “Houses should never be allowed to go ahead until developers provide everything the council requires.”

Coun David Heseltine, representing Bingley, said: “The developer has not submitted enough relevant information for the Council to make a judgement on the application and they have rightly refused it. The developers should now realise they need to provide accurate and pertinent details.”

Jon Lawrence, agent acting on behalf of Chartford Homes, declined to comment on Bradford Council’s decision.