A housing boss has grabbed almost £200,000 from builders wanting to put extra houses on the site of the former Ilkley College.

Shabbir Mohammed will use the money to help prevent less well-off Ilkley residents having to leave the area because of the astronomical property prices.

Mr Mohammed said he stepped in quickly when he heard that the company developing the college site wanted to add eight extra houses to the development.

Mr Mohammed, whose Bradford Council department had already squeezed £440,000 for 'affordable' houses out of the lucrative expected development profits, told a meeting of the Ilkley Parish Council planning committee that Miller Homes, who had taken over the development from Crest Homes, contacted the planners asking to put more houses on the site.

Negotiations with the developer took place which resulted in the promise of another £192,000 to be paid within 28 days of being granted planning permission to put another eight houses on the site. "This money will have to be used to provide affordable housing in this area," said Mr Mohammed.

He explained that the land prices in Ilkley and the reluctance of developers in general made the provision of affordable housing extremely difficult.