A PROJECT to re-naturalise a stretch of Bradford Beck will involve the planting of hundreds of trees and help improve over two hectares of green space near Shipley.

Plans to restore parts of Bradford Beck, a stretch alongside Valley Road, were first revealed a number of years ago.

And now the project has moved into the next stage - with work due to start later this year.

Once complete the work will have created a new park on the outskirts of the town, and hopefully increase fish numbers in the water way by 20 per cent.

That stretch of the beck currently flows beneath a culvert, but the new works will remove 80 metres of this man-made culvert, exposing this part of the beck for the first time in decades and creating a more natural channel that will be centrepiece of the new park area.

After new details of the £3.25m works were recently submitted by Bradford Council, planning officers have now determined that the scheme will not require a full Environmental Impact Assessment before work starts.

Volunteers collect 300 bags of rubbish in beck clean up

The "screening opinion" - needed to determine how thorough future applications for the work need to be, gave more detail on the project than has previously been revealed.

A 110 metre long channel will be created to naturalise the beck, with a new 120 metre long footpath created to the East of the new channel.

It says the project will bring about 2.2 hectares of land improvements, led to the planting 350 native trees, 5,000 square metres of meadow planting, 300 square metres of bulb planting, create 300 square metres of wetland and lead to a 20 per cent increase in fish numbers within five years of work being completed.

The improvements will mean the beck "has the potential to act as a commuting route for otter."

The changes will also involve enhancements to 535 metres of shared cycleway / footway running alongside the site.

Referring to the planned timetable for the work, the documents say: "It is expected that construction would commence in December 22, will last for 31 weeks and be completed by June 2023 when the proposed scheme would become operational."

While the work is carried out the existing greenway on the site, pedestrians and cyclists will be diverted via Valley Road on a "segregated shared cycleway."

Half of the project (£1.625m) will be funded through the European Development Fund with the other half coming from the Council’s capital fund.

Originally the work was expected to be part of a road widening scheme between Shipley and Bradford. However, last year the Council announced that the beck naturalisation would be fast tracked, and no longer tied to the road scheme.