Bradford planners are betraying future generations by not insisting developers include the maximum green technology in district-wide developments, claims a councillor.

Councillor Kevin Warnes (Green, Shipley) has launched a stinging attack on Bradford Council for policies which he says will cost the area dearly in years to come and make “a mockery” of its eco-friendly posturing.

And at next Wednesday’s full Council meeting he will ask Council leader, Coun David Green: “How many planning consents granted by the Council since the beginning of 2012 have included a condition that the developer incorporate on-site renewable energy technologies in the new building?”

Top of his list of concerns include:

  •  failure to insist on high-energy efficiency for some 3,200 homes in the New Bolton Woods/Canal Road corridor urban village
  • lack of integral money-savers such as solar panels, ground-source heating or wind turbines in new school buildings
  • no insistence that new supermarket plans must have progressive design features such as rainwater recycling or green power.

But the Council says it takes sustainability in major planning schemes “very seriously” and adding that all developers were “asked to consider the latest green technology.”

Coun Warnes said: “We are planning to build thousands of bog-standard Code 4 new homes (or mini-me carbon factories) along the Canal Road corridor that will produce more carbon per year than the Council’s entire annual carbon emissions, making a mockery of our corporate commitment to a low carbon future for the district.

“If we think we have high fuel prices and fuel poverty now – just think ahead 20 years.

“The New Bolton Woods development will ultimately be some 3,200 homes which are all just Code 4 statues when it comes to energy efficiency.

“They alone will produce an estimated 83,000 tonnes of carbon every year and that will still be true in 2050 when we are supposed to have achieved 80 per cent decarbonisation according to the Climate Change Act of 2008,” Coun Warnes said.

He said Code 4 homes were just better than normal houses in terms of energy efficiency, but said Code 6 homes were so efficient that householders would have barely any energy bills while being a fifth more expensive to build.

Coun Warnes supports Saltaire Primary School’s scheme of borrowing cash from the Council to install solar panels on its roof. The money saved will then be repaid to the taxpayer within 11 years.

And he said it was a shame such initiative was not used in the construction of other Council-backed projects.

“We are busy building schools that are carbon factories while doing nothing to even insulate these schools from future energy price hikes.”

Julian Jackson, the Council’s assistant director for planning, transportation and highways, said: “The Council takes sustainability in major planning schemes very seriously. Both national and local planning policy have specific advice.

“All developers are asked to show what measures they have looked at to reduce the carbon footprints of their schemes and green elements in their design statements.

“New school and college buildings have made great strides in green technology including low energy buildings, more use of recycled materials and green travel plans.”