A NEW Year battle to save the Ilkley area from being swamped with new developments begins next week .

The public inquiry into Bradford's Unitary Devel-opment Plan (UDP) begins at Victoria Hall in the village of Saltaire on Tuesday morning.

From 10am, a Depart-ment of the Environment team of inspectors will hear objections into the district's planning blueprint for the next 15 years.

The outcome of the inquiry will decide the fate of the green belt and the quality of life in the towns and villages of Wharfedale.

At the public inquiry into the last UDP in 1996, parish and district councillors battled long and hard to convince the inspectors that green belt areas should be preserved from developers.

This time the position is different. Local campaigners will be the biggest allies of the City Hall planners who will enter the arena to be faced by the representatives of development companies.

In order to save on the massive expense of the last inquiry, Bradford Council planners carried out a massive public consultation before finalising the UDP and most locals agree they have got it right this time.

Areas marked out for housing are few and far between in Ilkley. Part of the Ben Rhydding Primary School playing fields on Bolling Road had been designated for housing land but after massive protests and a petition of 8,000 signatures the site was removed from the UDP.

Ilkley District Councillor and Brad-ford's environment chief, Anne Hawk-esworth, said that the only threat from the UDP came from developers who wanted the inspectors to change it.

"The reality is that the developers are the people who are unhappy with the UDP and they are going to come out fighting," said Coun Hawkesworth. She is confident that council planners would be able to put a good case before the inspection team and thwart the developers.

But there is still a possibility of a spanner being thrown in the works. In the last UDP the field at Manor Garth, Addingham, was ignored by almost everyone until an objection was put in during the inquiry about its exclusion from the plan.

The inspector astounded everyone by ruling that part of the field at the heart of the village should be designated for housing. This designation has been removed in the latest UDP.

Coun Hawkesworth said: "The only thing that can happen is something silly like Manor Garth. I don't expect there will be any nasty shocks but we have got to keep an eye on it."

Addingham Parish Council chairman Gordon Campbell said that letters of support had been sent to the inquiry backing the planners' position that the village should be protected from development.

He said: "All the hard work has already been done. It couldn't have been better if they had asked Addingham Parish Council to write the UDP, because it covered everything we wanted to cover."

The site of the abandoned first school is earmarked for housing but not until at least 2008, in line with a proposed housing site at Wharfe Park, between Bark Lane and Main Street.

Coun Campbell said: "We were worried about areas between the bypass and the village but development companies have put in objections to the UDP.

However, the parish council is worried about a small parcel of land on Parsons Lane which has been earmarked for housing. Parish council vice-chariman Jan Geddes has been preparing to put an objection before the inquiry. Parish councillors also want the former garage site on Main Street to be removed from the green belt.

It presently has planning permission for a motel, but all building work on the site seems to have come to a standstill. The preferred option is housing which could be achieved if it was removed from green belt status.

Rombalds councillor and chairman of the Keighley area planning panel, Chris Greaves, said: "It (the inquiry) is going to last six months and it is going to have quite a significant effect - there are objections and support.

"The thing in its favour - assuming it is accepted - is that green belt does not get taken. And quite a few of the green fields have been put back to 2008. The developers are going to say we have done all our sums wrong and they want land releasing straight away."