CONTROVERSIAL plans to build housing on a former garden centre site near Saltaire could be approved later this week.

Previous plans for homes on the former Hirst Wood Nurseries site on the Leeds Liverpool Canal have been refused twice by Bradford Council.

Submitted by the Hartley Property Group, the plans called for a small number of homes on the site – in the green belt just outside Saltaire.

But Council officers raised concerns about highways access to the site – over a small swing bridge on the canal, and that the size of the homes amounted to “inappropriate development” in the green belt.

A planning inspector had backed the Councils decision to refuse a previous plan when it went to appeal.

Last year a fresh application to build homes on the site was submitted by the Hartley Property Trust.

The application was initially for four homes, but the plans were later scaled back to three.

On Wednesday Bradford Council’s Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel will meet to decide whether this latest application should be refused or approved.

Shipley Town Council has requested the application is refused, as have 31 objectors.

But planning officers will recommend the scheme be approved – arguing the issues blighting the other applications for the site have been overcome.

The site has been vacant for a number of years, and has become an eyesore on the picturesque canal walk between Saltaire and Bingley.

There have been calls, some of which have been repeated by objectors to this scheme, for the site to become a nature reserve or other public green space.

A report to members says: “The scheme, as now proposed, represents an appropriate form of development within the green belt, in that it constitutes the redevelopment of previously developed land which will not have a materially greater impact on openness, compared to the previous use.

“As to the impact upon heritage assets, this is judged to be less than substantial and it would in turn have the clear public benefit of improving a derelict site which is currently detracts from the setting of both the Leeds-Liverpool Canal Conservation Area, the Saltaire World Heritage Site and the listed Hirst Lock, as well as contributing positively to local housing.

“It is acknowledged that the existing access is substandard. However, balanced against this is the understanding that any subsequent use of the site is likely to generate traffic of some form, whether that comes from the reinstatement of a garden nursery on the site or an alternative use.”

The meeting takes place in Keighley Town Hall on Wednesday at 10am.