Worries about flooding have caused a delay on a decision whether or not an apartment block can be built in Middleton in Ilkley.

Drainage officers told a meeting of the Keighley area planning panel that further investigations will have to be made before the development in Gilstead Way can be given the go-ahead.

Nearby residents had objected to the plan, citing worries about a small brook which runs through the site.

The company wanting to construct the eight-apartment block - Micklegate Developments of Ilkley - had agreed to install an underground chamber for water to collect because of fears that rainwater running off the buildings and car parking area would inundate the small brook.

A valve system will allow the release of the water at the same rate as natural drainage occurs from the land at the moment. But a spokesman for the Ilkley planning department said that officers wanted further investigations carried out by drainage consultants to ensure flooding did not occur because of problems further back towards the source of the brook.

There will be a meeting between consultants acting for the developer and council officials before the plan is presented to the panel again in April.

A report to the panel says that there have been 41 individual objections to the plan, as well as a 33-signature petition and objections from Ilkley Parish Council and Ilkley Civic Society.

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