ANOTHER huge wad of cash looks to be on its way to Bradford Council's housing budget with yet another developer willing to stump up cash to avoid having to build affordable homes on the site.

Burley Developments Ltd, the company which has applied to develop the former Scalebor Park psychiatric hospital in Burley-in-Wharfedale, has stated it is willing to pay over a cash 'commuted sum'.

A loophole in planning regulations allows developers to pay the money instead of building houses which less well off people can afford to buy.

The issue is surrounded in controversy after a Gazette investigation discovered that Bradford Council had been putting 'commuted sum' money in the bank and using the interest to spend on other budgets while no affordable housing was being built in Wharfedale.

A sum of £28,000 was paid over by Redrow Homes which was then allowed to build an executive-style housing estate in Addingham, Crest Homes is set to hand over around £400,000 in return for not providing affordable housing on its site at Ilkley College, and now Burley Developments is prepared to stump up more cash.

At the annual Ilkley parish meeting this week, Dennis Warwick, chairman of Burley Community Council, said he had learned that Burley Developments had set aside a substantial sum of money to pay over in lieu of providing affordable homes on the Scalebor site.

At the meeting, the chairman of Ilkley Civic Society, Bob Tilley, demanded action from parish councillors on finding a suitable site in the town to provide affordable housing using the Crest Homes money.

The parish council's Audrey Brand replied: "The only way we can ensure this money stays in Ilkley is to find a site. It is no good having the money if there is nowhere to do the building. We are looking for land and if there is anybody who knows of any land we would wish to be informed."

If the money is not used in Ilkley within three years, then a site anywhere within the Keighley Parliamentary constituency could be found. If no site is found within five years then the money is returned to the developer.

Others at the meeting suggested that the various sums of money if added together, plus discounts and grants available for providing affordable housing, could be used to provide a suitable site.

But any money paid over for a site in Burley cannot be used in the Ilkley area because they are in separate parliamentary constituencies. Coun Brand said that there were two sites in Ilkley which parish councillors had considered for affordable housing but they had not yet become available to buy.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.