PLANS to create a food court in a city centre Conservation Area have been refused by planning officers.

Late last year an application was submitted to Bradford Council that called for a section of pay and display car park on Sunbridge Road to be converted into an outdoor eatery.

It would have seen shipping containers installed in the walled car park area at National House, and seating for 92 diners, both outdoor seating and seating under a new roof that would be installed between the containers.

The application, by Sheraz Akram, said the plans would "inject life" back into that area of the city.

The site would lie behind the walls of National House, the remains of a building that was demolished in 2008.

But now planning officers have refused the proposals, claiming the proposed late night opening of the outdoor food court would harm the residents of Woolston House, an apartment building that overlooks the site.

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And heritage officers had also raised concerns about the impact a development made up of storage containers would have in the Goitside Conservation Area - where National House is based.

The site is one that has been earmarked for a number of developments. In 2006 an application to build a six storey residential building on the site was approved by Bradford Council, and National House was demolished to make way for this development.

In 2009 a more ambitious plan for the site was approved - to build a 145 bed, seven storey hotel with a restaurant, bar, and pool area.

Neither scheme has progressed, and the site became a pay and display car park.

The food court plan was just for a section of the site, but a Council Conservation Officer feared that it could hinder the wider development of the prominent site. Conservation Officer Jon Ackroyd said: "There have in the past been ambitions to develop behind the perimeter façade and such a prospect would be a good regeneration opportunity with catalytic effect on the area.

"The public benefits of the proposal are ambiguous, and it is doubtful whether it satisfies the intent of policies in terms of avoiding piecemeal development which would compromise the proper planning of the area. The subdivision of the space with proposed walls would also compromise its development potential."

Refusing the plans, officers said: "The proposed development by reason of its proximity to a significant number of residential apartments and the extension of the proposed operating late into the night and into the early hours of the morning would result in significant harm to the residential amenity of these properties through the generation of noise and disturbance at unsociable hours."

Referring to the appearance of the food court, officers said: "The proposed development by reason of its use of shipping containers would represent an incongruous form of development in this area and the proposed canopy would obstruct views of Woolston House through openings in the high walls fronting Sunbridge Road.

"This is considered to result in significant harm to visual amenity and to the setting of the Goitside Conservation Area."