Hundreds of people were devastated today after councillors gave the thumbs up to plans for a huge distribution centre near their homes.

The plant described by one councillor as "like Emley Moor mast" will create hundreds of new jobs.

But families living near the site at Cross Lane, Westgate Hill, have vowed to fight on to try to stop it.

Britain's third biggest soft drinks company wants to open its national distribution centre on the site which will then become a business park, bringing an estimated 850 new jobs.

The Council wants the company to give priority to people in the area, including Holme Wood and Bierley, if it goes ahead.

But the Council has received more than 600 individual letters to the proposals - one of the biggest protests it has ever received to a single planning application.

The families say the massive plant which will be 25 metres high will tower over their homes and they will suffer from noise, disturbance and huge amounts of extra traffic in the already clogged-up road.

The application will be forwarded to next week's transportation, planning and design committee when officers will tell members that the planning sub-committee wants to see it approved.

The company's operations director Rob Johnstone, who was at the meeting, said afterwards: "It is good news for Bradford. We will look forward to progressing the project."

But Ray Crorken, who attended on behalf of the objectors, said: "It is an absolute disgrace. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. We won't drop our campaign and will oppose it at next week's meeting. We will do everything we can to stop it from happening."

The planning application had been deferred by the sub-committee last month when the company was asked to look at alternative sites further away from the houses.

But the company said the only viable solution was on the part of the land it had originally proposed.

But it amended the scheme by lowering the height from about 30 metres to 25.

Mr Johnstone told the sub-committee that they had chosen a design which would shield residents from any noise.

Councillor Stanley King (Con, Heaton) said: "We must insist that heavy traffic be completely barred from Cross Lane.

"It is going to be like the Emley Moor mast though."

The committee also gave the go-ahead to a housing development at Bramble Close, Clayton, in spite of objections from residents.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.