A cash-strapped cricket club has launched a controversial bid to stop its fortunes being hit for six by building homes on part of its ground.

Windhill Cricket Club is asking Bradford Council to grant outline planning permission for a scheme which would see six homes with garages and parking spaces built next to its pavilion on the Thackley Old Road side of the ground.

Officials say it would raise desperately needed cash to help pay off debts and fund planned pavilion improvements but claim the Shipley club could be forced out of business if plans are refused.

But residents living near the ground want to stump the club's proposals, saying they would damage their quality of life.

Club manager Dave Ryan said: "The cost of cricket and maintaining standards has spiralled out of all proportion over the last few years and unfortunately we've got to the stage where to put ourselves back on the right footing we've got to realise some of our assets.

"It's imperative this goes ahead - if it doesn't it would be extremely serious for the club and it could go under.

"We've got a very bright future thanks to the success of our junior section - we've got 90 youngsters on the books and six of this year's first team have come up through the youth ranks - and we need to protect that.''

Mr Ryan said as well as plans to expand its junior football section the future of community events staged at the ground, such as the Windhill Gala and annual donkey derby, would be put at risk if the club's plans failed.

The proposals - which would involve realigning the cricket pitch and pushing the boundary back towards Leeds Road to accommodate the homes - have resulted in two letters of objection from residents in Daleside Road and another from Sport England being sent to Bradford Council.

One objector, Len Parker, 76, of Daleside Road, said: "We probably get an average of a ball a month hit into our garden every summer - over the years we've had three windows broken, a greenhouse window smashed, two roof slates damaged and were almost hit ourselves once while sitting in the back garden and if they move the pitch and boundary it will make things even worse.''

Mr Parker said moving the boundary would result in a loss of parking space at the ground with more vehicles parking on surrounding roads while the housing would generate more traffic on Thackley Old Road, where speed bumps had recently been installed.

In a letter sent to the Council, Sport England's development manager Andrew Keeling said: "It is noted that the application maintains a pitch of a similar size to the original but it does seem to remove the chance of providing ancillary practise facilities or even a car park for the club.

"It also brings residential properties into close proximity to an existing cricket field with the associated problem of cricket balls landing in gardens.''

Mr Ryan said precautions would be taken to ensure cricket balls hit for six did not cause damage to neighbouring properties as a result of the pitch and boundary changes, adding that parking would still be able to be provided at the ground.

Councillor Mark Blackburn (Lab, Shipley East), who was set to meet club officials tonight to discuss the issue, said: "I can understand the residents' feelings because it's a nice quiet area.

"But if this is the only way they can raise the money and it's a choice between this and the club going under and having to sell off the whole site it would be the lesser of two evils and I'd have to support it.''

e-mail: ian.lewis

@bradford.newsquest.co.uk