HOUSING on an Otley green field site will only be considered once all previously developed land has been used up, it has been stressed.

Leeds City Council is currently reviewing its Unitary Development Plan - the planning blueprint for the area up to 2011.

Under the proposals, which are currently out to review, land to the east of Otley will be made a strategic housing site for up to 550 new homes linked to an East of Otley Relief Road.

Some residents fear that land at Rumplecroft and Meagill Rise, which was the subject of an unsuccessful housing development in the late 1990s, will become available once again and are urging people to make objections.

But at the Otley and Wharfedale Community Involvement Team (CIT) meeting last week, it was stressed that the current review is not taking into account green field sites - such as the Rumplecroft site.

Jill Smith, from Leeds City Council's planning department, told the CIT that because the review needed to be short it was not reconsidering green field land.

"We are not looking at green belt changes, if we started looking at the green belt it would not be a short review and we are required by the government to do a short review."

Councillor Clive Fox (Con, Otley and Wharfedale, CIT chairman, said Rumplecroft would not be included in the review.

"What the department is saying is that it would be very unlikely that the land will ever be touched. The planners will only review the greenbelt every 20 years or so and the chances are it will never come up for review. The chances are in 20 years time it will go back into the greenbelt."

The council's consultation period runs out on February 18. After that, the review moves into two legal phases. It should go on the first deposit in June this year and the second deposit later in the year. A public inquiry should be held some time next year.