The views of more than 6,000 people have been submitted to Bradford Council over a vital planning blueprint which will determine the district's development over the next decade.

And letters and forms were still flooding into Council planning offices as the deadline for representations to the draft Unitary Development expired at 5pm today.

Planning officers were staying at the Jacob's Well Council office until 6pm to deal with last- minute submissions.

And comments in tomorrow's post bag are also expected, although posting times will be taken into consideration.

But the message from environment chief Councillor Anne Hawkesworth was that the draft Unitary Development was not written in stone and all views would be considered.

Officers say it is impossible to assess the final volume of representations until all the correspondence has been examined over the next week. But it will not be as high as the 20,000 representations the Council received on the existing Unitary Development Plan in 1992.

And the difference this time round is that a large number of people are in support of the recommendations which seek to protect many green fields from development. By today's deadline objections were anticipated from developers and land owners seeking housing on prime sites.

The bulk of representations are from Baildon where 4,000 villagers have signed a letter in support of the proposal to remove the designation of housing for Baildon Green and make it recreational space. The petitioners are also backing Jenny Lane Action Group's bid to have it declared a village green. But a proposal to take Baildon Bank out of the green belt and designate it as urban green space is strongly opposed.

Silsden residents are still fighting hard against proposals for about 1,200 new houses, even though the Council proposes to hold back development for nine years.

There is also a protest, headed by children, against housing at Crow Nest Field and Jer Wood, Bingley.

Today Councillor Hawkesworth said: "It is not written in pillars of stone and we will listen to what people have to say."