A businessman is urging planners to overturn a previous decision preventing him from creating a karting track in a defunct foundry.

Tim Denton claims Bradford Council planners have been inflexible in throwing out his plan for the old Devonshire Works in Pitt Street, Keighley, because they say the site is not well enough served by public transport.

His scheme is to run ten karts - possibly gas driven - and provide 16 new jobs on the site of the former Naylors foundry.

Mr Denton, who is managing director of Metcalfe Castings in Parkwood Street, Keighley, said: "There is a bus which stops every five minutes at Keighley railway station and that's only 465 yards away from the proposed karting site.''

Alternatively, he said, customers could catch a bus which travels along Parkwood Street every three quarters of an hour.

"That is a good enough service because people will be booking sessions and they can book to fit in with the bus time table,'' he added.

He believes a Council policy, which insists that new leisure developments should be adequately served by public transport, is too inflexible in regard to his application.

He said the foundry was not far out of the town centre, had good parking and there had been no objections from the highways department.

A Bradford Council planning spokesman said officers had received a request from Mr Denton to consider the application again in the light of his argument that the site was reasonably well served by public transport.

"It was refused because it was considered to have poor public transport links with the town centre and so was contrary to council policy,'' he said.

Although highways officers had not objected, planners felt the scheme was likely to generate more car traffic.

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