HOMES look set to be built in the heart of Harden, despite objections from the local MP.

The scheme would see around 25 homes built on a site which includes the village green.

It was approved in outline by a planning committee yesterday, despite Shipley MP Philip Davies branding it "inappropriate" for the village.

Mr Davies had said in a letter: "The development would considerably spoil the tranquility and appearance of the centre of Harden, equally unnecessarily increasing traffic congestion."

Harden Parish Council had also opposed the scheme to build new homes on the part-greenfield and part-brownfield site off Harden Road and Keighley Road, a meeting of the Council's Regulatory and Appeals Committee heard yesterday.

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Councillors were told part of the site was currently a coal merchants, while another part had been designated as an official village green.

The scheme would retain most of the village green, although a road serving the new homes would wind through it.

This road would lead out onto Keighley Road, but some of the committee members raised fears about the safety of this arrangement, saying there were a lot of speeding drivers on this stretch.

Councillor Doreen Lee said: "It's a busy road, a little rat-run and they come down there hell-for-leather."

Highways engineer John Rowley said speeds had been measured, and most people kept to the limit.

He said: "You rule out the idiots, you can never legislate for them."

Councillor Glen Miller said it was all too easy to go too fast along this stretch, and asked if road safety measures could be incorporated into the scheme.

He said: "I speed quite often going up it - mistakenly of course."

But planning officer John Eyles said the applicant, Jonas Crowther and Sons, could only be expected to fund solutions to problems directly caused by the development.

Mr Eyles also said that while part of the land was officially a village green, it was difficult for members of the public to access it and the scheme would open it up to all.

The committee approved the plans.

Cllr Lee said while she still had concerns about the road, she didn't "have a problem with the development itself".

Cllr Mike Ellis said under the emerging Local Plan, a blueprint for development across the district, Harden would have to accommodate 100 new homes.

He said: "This is going to be 25 per cent of the houses that have to be found."