The petrol crisis has resulted in a planning application for a development in Long Lee being deferred.

Keighley area panel yesterday put off a decision on the controversial Birch Tree Gardens development for a month because members did not have petrol to make a site visit.

Residents have been campaigning to ensure the land is stable before work starts.

Skipton Properties had bought the land in 1988 and did some minor works on the site just days before planning permission granted in 1993 ran out.

Until January, last year, when a revised planning application was submitted, little work was carried out and the situation did not change.

The residents claim they have evidence showing that, rather than waiting for planning permission to be granted, Skipton Properties started work on the site, including erecting a two metre high gabion wall, designed to hold the sloped site in place.

"The gabion wall started moving and then the wooden fence that they put up started moving," says one resident.

The recontouring of the land has had a damaging effect on many of the gardens in Cherry Tree Rise, including severe flooding, the raising of patio flag stones and the destruction of boundary fences.

Comments made in a survey of the site described the rate of land slippage as "unacceptable".

Planning officers ordered Skipton Properties to carry out the site survey after work on the site was halted. Skipton Properties' original surveyors, the Dunhelm Drilling Company, identified manifold problems with the site but were replaced by another company, Wardell Armstrong, before their report was complete.

A spokesman from HETS, a consultancy employed by Bradford council, recently said that its engineers were denied access to the construction site and have had to base a large part of their research on Wardell Armstrong's report, a report which a senior council planning officer admits is flawed.

If the application is refused Skipton Properties can revert to the 1993 planning permission.

Resident Graham Waterhouse, pictured, says: "The developer has now got this 1993 plan hanging over the council, saying that if you don't agree I'll use this. I'm trying to err on the side of fairness but they are certainly threatening to build with the 1993 plan."

A spokesman from Wilbraham and Co, the solicitors for Skipton Properties, says: "Skipton Properties has submitted a new scheme for the site, which includes a comprehensive drainage system which will provide better drainage than has previously existed or than has been approved under current planning permission.

"The scheme has been subject to rigorous technical assessment by the HETS laboratory and the company is therefore hopeful that this scheme will be approved by the council."