Bradford council's controversial Unitary Develop-ment Plan (UDP) has now been adopted for Silsden.

It means that the people of Silsden can expect to see nearly 1,500 new homes built on green belt land around the town in coming years. A number of industrial sites will also be developed.

Up to 52 hectares of land could be lost for housing and up to 33 hectares for industrial and employment development.

Despite years of campaigning, a public inquiry and many meetings in the town on the subject Silsden Town Action Group (STAG) has failed to get the decision overturned.

In the last few weeks Craven ward councillor Eric Dawson has set up a petition which will be presented to deputy prime minister John Prescott. It is a last-ditch effort to get the government to change its mind about building on the green belt.

Local campaigners say Bradford council has ignored the policy framework which all sites in the UDP have to comply with. They say the council has gone against the policy of building in the washlands and has failed to:

protect the best agricultural land

protect special landscape areas

protect the environment.

STAG member, parish councillor and local environmentalist Keith Norris has even written to the United Nations in New York, as we reported in last week's Keighley News.

He says: "Silsden has already increased in size by 10 per cent within the last decade without any improvement in facilities or infrastructure. In some instances there has been a decline in facilities."

He says that an increase in population will only exacerbate the situation.

He also says there are no affordable housing allocations within Silsden and that the UDP will simply not meet the needs of those who require new or improved housing conditions.

Bradford council planning chief Jack Womersley criticised campaigners in a recent Panorama TV documentary, saying that Silsden people were 'pulling up the drawbridge'.

"STAG objected to seven sites from a total of 21 proposed for Silsden," responds Mr Norris.

"This is hardly a 'drawbridge' mentality."

Arguments have also raged over the town's proposed Eastern bypass.

Mr Norris believes the people of Silsden are being 'hoodwinked'. "The bypass is just a means for developing land for housing," he says. "It is not for the good of the people of Silsden."

He does not believe Bradford council's argument that there will be environmental benefits from the plans.

"It will be an environmental disaster," he says. "There should be no development to the east of Silsden. It is rich pasture land, and of special landscape interest, and there are farmers who really do not want the development. The long term effects could be huge."

Watch out for a special feature on how Silsden will change, coming soon in the Keighley News.

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