A campaign group battling controversial plans for 475 new homes on green fields will press a Government Minister to back their fight.

MP Greg Clark will visit campaigners from Greenhill Action Group (GAG) which is fighting plans for the homes next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in Sty Lane, Micklethwaite, Bingley.

Group chairman Terry Brown said: “What we are really looking for is to see if there is some way that the authority can be taken away from the Council to use this area for housing sites.

“The site is unsuitable for housing. We want Mr Clark to see that for himself and help us in our fight to stop development.”

Mr Clark, Minister for the Department of Communities and Local Government, agreed to visit the area after Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies criticised housing targets set by the former Government.

Former Bradford Council leader Eric Pickles, now the Communities Secretary, has since announced the end of centralised home-building targets. The blueprint to deliver more than 50,000 houses across the Bradford district has been scrapped.

However, earlier this month Council planners wrote to the developers Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) and Bellway Homes Ltd, asking for more detailed information about the schemes.

In a letter, they said there was still a huge need for housing in the Bradford district and the scrapping of targets should make no difference to plans to build the developments in Sty Lane.

An application submitted by the developers will still be considered by Bradford Council.

Mr Brown said he hoped to persuade Mr Clark that if the Government had the final decision following a public inquiry the homes should not be built.

Mr Davies, who will join Mr Clark on the visit on Thursday, said: “I want him to see the area first hand and meet local residents so that he understands how important it is that the planning system is weighted in favour of the local community and that there is nothing done centrally to impose unwanted developments.”

As previously reported in the Telegraph & Argus, he will also visit campaigners fighting controversial plans for nearly 350 new homes in Menston. Mr Clark, the minister in charge of Government decentralisation, will visit Menston to look at the sites and talk to residents about their objections.