PLANS to build housing at the end of a street off a busy Bradford road have been approved.

An application for 18 homes off Rooley Lane was submitted by Euro Garage Group, which is owned by the billionaire Issa Brothers, in 2022.

Access to the site would be via Kaycell Street, a short, unadopted road next to the Esso filling station and Starbucks cafe.

This week, over two years after plans were first submitted, the application was approved by Bradford Council.

Conditions of the approval include that Kaycell Street must be brought up to an adoptable standard, including newly laid road surfaces and pavements, and that at least four homes on the site are earmarked as affordable.

There had been five objections to the plans, raising issues including heavy traffic on Rooley Lane near the site entrance and the poor condition of Kaycell Street.

One objector said the site, grassed land between homes and business units, would be better used for tree planting.

The application is in an outline form, meaning more detailed plans would need to be submitted and approved before any construction work began, but it says the properties would be three bed family homes.

It pointed out that Bradford is currently falling well short of the five-year housing supply it is required to identify.

It adds: “The proposal will deliver housing on an accessible windfall site in the urban area.”

Approving the application, planning officers acknowledged the shortfall in housing sites in the District, saying: “The Council currently has a housing land supply of around 2.1 years and is therefore significantly below the supply required under the National Planning Policy Framework.

“The development of unallocated site contributes towards increasing the housing land supply.”

Referring to the Kaycell Street access, officers said: “The Highways Department consider that a satisfactory access can be provided to the site subject to the upgrading of Kaycell Street to bring it up to adoptable standards.”

Biodiversity officers were convinced that the planting of trees and hedgerows on the site, as well as the inclusion of bird and bat boxes in the development, would create more biodiversity than is currently on site.

Conditions of the approval include that the developer provide at least four affordable homes, and pay £10,000 to improve local bus stops – creating a real time information display.

The housing site has now been put on the market, with an asking price of £750,000.