Hundreds of people have won their battle to stop a housing development on green fields after protesting that it would swamp their village.

A petition containing almost 600 signatures and 40 letters of objection were considered by Bradford Area Planning Panel before it turned down an application for housing on fields at Broomfield Street in Queensbury.

After the meeting jubilant families said the village was at bursting point and conditions would have been "atrocious" if the development went ahead.

Officers who recommended that the application should be refused said a proposed new road to the development would go through the cemetery but the land affected was not used for burials.

They told members Yorkshire Water had also said the existing public sewers could not accommodate waste from the development.

And they said the applicants had given insufficient details of access or drainage arrangements for the proposed development.

They told councillors the proposals would also result in the loss of mature and attractive trees in the Queensbury conservation area.

They pointed out that the Council had already agreed a policy where brown field - former industrial land - should be given priority when new developments were put forward.

Conservative ward councillor Michael Walls said: "There are no school places in Queensbury and the village gets blocked with traffic each morning.

"It would be against the wishes of the people of Queensbury to have this dumped upon them."

After the meeting Betty Haigh of Sylvan Avenue said: "We are very happy. There are far too many houses and the traffic is atrocious."

l The panel was told a house owner had been forced to demolish the first floor of a two-storey extension after building it without planning consent.

Officers said two applications submitted after it was built were turned down because of the design. An appeal by the owner to the department of Environment, Transport and the Regions also failed.

The chairman Councillor Clive Richardson said: "This is an example of what can happen if you don't get planning permission."