PROPOSALS to make 40 per cent of new homes in Wharfedale 'affordable' have been attacked at a major public inquiry into Bradford Council's Unitary Development Plan (UDP).

Jim Johnsone regional planner for the North of England House Builders' Federation, said setting almost one in two homes at a lower price was not compatible with the plan's object to encourage high-quality residential areas in Wharfedale.

He said he believed that a figure of 25 per cent in the most buoyant market area would be enough to achieve the object of providing enough affordable homes.

The public inquiry into the UDP, which will dictate land use across the district over the next 15 years will deal with 7,000 objections and 700 different issues, is taking place at the Victoria Hall, Saltaire.

The challenges are mainly from land owners and developers who want marketable sites, rather than the many former industrial (brown field) sites the Council has earmarked for housing.

The Council has included in-fill sites, possible windfall land and conversions of existing buildings in its estimate of land to meet housing requirements over the next 15 years.

But at the end of the first week of the inquiry, Roy Dobson representing David Wilson Homes said: "I strongly fear many of these sites are loss making. I am saying I won't look at a field where I would make a loss."

Top planning consultants attending the round table discussion on the phasing of the plan questioned the inclusion of land in the first phase of sites with out of date planning approval.

They said detailed inquiries should have been carried out by the Council about their suitability and why the previously planned housing developments had not gone ahead.

There were also calls for land allocated for development in the second phase of the UDP- including Wharfe Park and the former First School site in Addingham - to be moved forward for immediate development.

The inquiry was continuing this week with a debate on land allocated for employment. The hearings are expected to end around the end of June and all sessions are open to the public.