HARDLY has the dust had time to settle following the row over the Skipton Road housing development site than Addingham has been hit with the prospect of yet more concrete and bricks mushrooming over village green space.

A new planning application has been received by Keighley planners for permisson to build nearly 70 new houses on pasture land near the Saw Mill.

Under the Unitary Development Plan the site, called Wharfe Park, was identified for housing land by Bradford planners.

They told a public inquiry that 138 objections were received and no representations in support of the housing designation were made.

During the hearing. one Addingham parish councillor warned that large housing developments in the village would mean the end of a community, leaving a dormitory town with a large commuting population but with only minimal amenities to support the extra people.

Following the publication of the Department of the Environment Inspector's report, many villagers felt they had been given a fair hearing and Addingham had got away lightly compared to other rural areas of Bradford district, such as Silsden.

But that feeling is rapidly disappearing with the threats of housing development on Manor Garth, what many condsider a far too intensive scheme on Skipton Road and now the application for the Saw Mill site.

Despite the recent visit to a parish council meeting by Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood, many villagers feel cynical and ignored by City Hall.

What they see as the fiasco over the Skipton Road site - where planners rejected a scheme for 23 houses only to allow a similar one for one house fewer - is expected to be repeated in the village with disastrous consequences for the community as a whole.

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