A housing development overlooking Bradford's World Heritage Site would be a blot on the landscape, a public inquiry has heard.

Protester Annie Barker is fighting Bradford Council's proposed Unitary Develop-ment Plan (UDP) to allocate a disused reservoir site in Baildon for housing.

She told the inquiry, at Victoria Hall, in Saltaire yesterday, that the plan for 108 homes on the land on top of Baildon hill would have a detrimental effect on the view over Saltaire. The historic village was given World Heritage Site status in December 2001 and the land falls within the site's 'buffer zone', she said.

She called for the land, off West Lane, to be given green belt and conservation status. "There should not be any development on this site because it also has archaeological, historical and literary importance," said Ms Barker, of The Grove, Baildon.

The scheme also sparked a massive protest by West Lane Action Group which has battled to save the land.

Ms Barker said she did extensive research and found it was known nationally as a site where there were once ancient cup-and-ring stones and was home to a Bronze Age burial mound.

Some of the discovered stones were also on display at Cliffe Castle museum, in Keighley, she said.

"The hillside was also mentioned in a number of literary works, including a poem by the late, well-known Aire Valley poet John Nicholson," she said.

Ms Barker said the fields were also used regularly by workers from Salts Mill for recreational purposes and was therefore of historical significance.

The Council's senior planning officer Isha Ahmed said planners had to stick to set planning guidelines when it came to brown-field allocation.

"If planning approval was given the heights of the buildings, contours of the land and the density of the site would all be taken into consideration," she said.