CLAIMS have been made the village of Addingham is in danger of turning into a

commuter-dominated dormitory town as yet another massive housing development is planned.

Developers plan to build a total of 75 new houses on a site at the Saw Mill, between Main Street and Bark Lane.

Landowners William Brear and Son Limited, who are based at the Saw Mill, have applied for outline planning permission.

Addingham Parish Council chairman Stephen Crossley-Smith described the proposal as

'horrendous.'

"The planning application was completely out of the blue - It is more than the village can cope with," said Coun Crossley-Smith.

The planning application comes after village representatives told Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood how angry they were that the plan to build 22 houses on Skipton Road was passed.

Civic Society chairman Don Barrett said: "We have known the field was designated building land for some time. It came up suddenly after Skipton Road. We feel a bit punch drunk at the moment."

Coun Crossley-Smith said that the combined amount of cars generated by the Saw Mill and Skipton Road developments could total around 200 a day using Main Street, especially if proposals to build on Manor Garth and The Croft, off Bolton Road, were approved.

"They bung houses here and all the people will be going to Leeds and Bradford - it defeats the whole object of keeping traffic and pollution down," said Coun Crossley-Smith.

He warned that Addingham was in danger of becoming a dormitory town without an adequate infrastructure, including shops, schools and drains, to cope with the massive increase in the village population.

He said that Bradford planners had already asked parish councillors to identify other vacant land in the village which could be built on, in line for the next Unitary Development Plan in two year's time.

A spokesman for Keighley planners said that already residents of Cross End Fold, which backs on to the Saw Mill site, had objected to the planned development.

Developers plan to turn the Saw Mill itself into six housing units and build 63 new houses on 1.5 hectares of pasture land at the end of Wharfe Park.

The spokesman said that the application was unlikely to be debated by the planning committee until February.

Parish councillors were due to meet with planning officials last night to discuss the threatened future of the village as a small rural settlement.

Mr Barrett said the Civic Society would be meeting next week to formulate an official response to the plan.

But his own opinion was that the figure of 63 new houses was too high and would also present an unacceptable increase in traffic using Main Street.

The developers were unavailable for comment.

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