A millionaire businessman has lost his battle to stop a major housing development from being built near his historic mansion.

Sir Ernest Hall, owner of 14th century Royds Hall, turned up at City Hall to try to stop the development which would plough half a million pounds into the regeneration of three estates forming the Royds area.

The house is mentioned in the Domesday Book and the hall's owners used to own the area which is now Wibsey.

"This is Bradford's history," said Sir Ernest.

He believes the entire site, which includes not only the manor house but also miles of ancient woodland, is and should be an amenity for people to enjoy now and in the future. Sir Ernest has lived in the historic house for 25 years, which he says he loves because it is close to a real community.

"I recognise something is going to happen. My concern is we shouldn't be in the hands of rapacious developers whose only interest is in making money," he said.

He fears the outline planning permission will give future developers a free hand to make as much cash as possible by building as many homes as they can get away with.

His agent, Stephen Sadler, told the committee the hall was a Grade Two starred and listed building and "one of the finest remaining manor houses in Britain".

Mr Sadler told members of Bradford planning sub-committee he was flabbergasted at the application by the landowners and pointed out that English Heritage had not even been told about the proposals.

But the sub-committee gave the go-ahead on the site at Royds Hall Lane, which is privately owned by a Bradford family apart from a strip of access land belonging to Royds Community Association.

The land - which could accommodate 200 homes - will now go on the market and could fetch millions of pounds. The area owned by Royds could bring £500,000 into the massive regeneration scheme being carried out on Woodside, Buttershaw and Delph Hill estates.

Agent for the landowners Philip Coote said the land was already designated for housing in the district's Unitary Development Plan - the plan for land use in the Bradford area.

He added that large pylons were already a blot on the landscape and they would try to get rid of them if the application was approved.

"It is a long way away from this listed building," he said.

The sub-committee agreed an archaeological survey should be carried out before any development started and that no work should take place until proposals had been approved for the management of all landscaping on the site.

After the meeting Mr Coote described the decision as a sensible one, saying about 15 developers were already interested in the site and the removal of the pylons would be a priority.

Millionaire Sir Ernest was born and lived in the back streets of Bolton. In 1983 he bought Dean Clough in Halifax with Jonathan Silver, later buying Mr Silver out.

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