PROPOSALS to build homes on the site of a former mortuary have been refused by Bradford Council.

The now vacant site is on Skipton Road in Keighley, next to Utley Cemetery.

In 2018 outline plans to build five homes on the site were approved by Bradford Council.

Earlier this year a more detailed "reserved matters" application, this time to build six homes instead of five, was submitted by James Cotterill.

Keighley Town Council had raised concerns that six houses was an "overdevelopment" of the site.

And the Yorkshire Garden Trust had questioned why the plans did not include a Heritage Assessment, pointing to the fact that the neighbouring cemetery is Grade II listed.

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One condition of the 2018 approval was that a reserved matters application, fleshing out the plans and layout of the site, would be submitted to Bradford Council within three years.

The Council claims that this latest application was submitted a day after the deadline - June 14 2021 - and was missing documents planning officers would need to see before deciding on the plans.

This meant the application was not validated until July, three weeks after the planning had expired.

Planning officers said: "The Outline permission has therefore lapsed and the matters reserved by such a lapsed permission cannot be considered."