Anger at plans for homes on old school field

A developer applied to build 34 homes on the Oakdale Primary School site off Child's Lane in Wrose, Shipley. Now they have amended their proposals to include two blocks of flats and a range of other types of housing.

Two Shipley East Labour councillors, Tony Miller and Philip Thornton, have written to Bradford Council to object to the amended plans.

These include a "horseshoe-shaped" road instead of two cul-de-sacs off Wrose Road, which they say will generate more traffic.

Bradford Council planners, who have received seven letters of objection and two petitions, are recommending the scheme be approved at the Shipley Area Planning Panel meeting on August 28.

Coun Miller said: "This area suffered traffic problems even 20 years ago, so this will only compound that problem.

"Residents aren't opposed to the principle of developing on that site, but not this many houses."

But Wrose Community Centre, which missed out on buying the Oakdale School site to the developers, is set to benefit from the proposals.

Last December, the Council negotiated with the builders, who agreed to give a £180,000 grant to the community centre to double its current premises on Wrose Road. A spokesman for Bradford Council's planning department said:

"The existing UDP (Urban Development Plan) denotes the site as part of a much wider area designated as a Major Urban Greenspace, but the draft review of the UDP reclassifies it as a Phase 1 Housing Site.

"Since the proposed development is a departure from the current development plan, if the proposals are supported by the Area Planning Panel they must then be referred to the Council's Regulatory and Appeals Committee, and then to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in Leeds.

"If approved the development would include the provision of 20 affordable housing units and a contribution of £40,000 for the provision or maintenance of recreational facilities in the neighbourhood."

Oakdale School closed in 2000.