The developer lined up to build a new housing estate between Gilstead and Eldwick is Bryant Homes, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.

Plans for 400 houses on fields in Warren Lane have been fiercely opposed by residents, environmentalists and wildlife campaigners.

A final decision now rests with the Environment Secretary John Prescott after a Government-appointed inspector presided over a three-day public inquiry into the scheme at Shipley Town Hall last week.

Villagers in Gilstead and Eldwick are angry at the proposed new housing estate which they say would overload the road and sewerage systems.

And news of the involvement of Bryant Homes - which is already embroiled in controversy at another of its development sites in nearby Sandy Lane - could raise the stakes even higher.

Residents living near land off Aspen Rise and Acacia Drive, Sandy Lane, where Bryant Homes has just begun work on 92 new houses, have mounted a high-profile protest campaign. They have joined forces with eco-warriors from the Rye Loaf camp in the path of the proposed Bingley relief road to carry out direct action including putting up barricades and halting work by jumping onto diggers.

Jean Jones, one of the residents behind the campaign, said today that protesters in other areas such as Gilstead and Eldwick could well follow the Sandy Lane example.

But Michael Dalton, managing director of Bryant Homes (Yorkshire), would not comment on the possibility of protests spreading from Sandy Lane to Gilstead.

He said: "We are awaiting the outcome of the appeal which is expected soon. Bryant Homes has a conditional contract to develop the land which was taken out after it was allocated for housing in Bradford Council's Unitary Development Plan."

Jean Jones warned: "If it go ahead in Gilstead, Bryant Homes are asking for trouble.

"I don't think for one minute that people will sit down and be walked all over any more. We've shown what you can do by refusing to lie down.

"People will stand up for their rights and for future generations."

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