A mothballed plan to build 174 homes on the site of a former Bradford hospital is being revived.

Doncaster developer Strata Homes took nearly four years to finalise the loose ends of outline planning permission for the old Northern View Hospital site in Rooley Avenue, Odsal, in March 2009.

No work has started on the scheme since and the firm’s permission expires in mid-March. Strata blames the delay on the recession and has re-applied for planning permission from Bradford Council.

In a letter from agents DLP Planning Ltd to the Council, associate planner Katrina Hulse said: “The period of time since the Reserved Matters application was granted has been particularly difficult for the house-building industry and it would not have been financially feasible for my client to have progressed the development during this uncertain period.

“However, it is very much hoped that the housing market and economy more generally will start to improve over the course of the next two years and therefore the implementation of the scheme during this time period would be more financially prudent and beneficial for my client.”

The site, which is owned by NHS Estates, is allocated as a phase one housing site in Bradford’s Unitary Development Plan and is therefore considered a priority for development.

Councillor David Robinson (Lab, Wyke), who is chairman of the Bradford Area Planning Panel, is keen for such sites to be developed as soon as possible to cope with the district’s growing population.

He said: “There is a desperate need for housing within Bradford and this is a phase one housing site. We are now onto releasing phase two sites because of the extreme shortage of housing.”

But fellow Labour ward councillor David Warburton is not convinced the revised application means construction is imminent.

He said: “I think it’s just a process that the owners of the property will be going through automatically.

“I know a number of sites across the district that are in similar situations and if I was the developer I would do exactly the same to keep my options open for the future. The prospect of them doing anything in the short-term is very unlikely.”

He remained concerned that the site borders a polluted disused landfill tip in the Pearson Road area which Yorkshire Forward, the doomed regional development agency, had offered £4.2 million to reclaim as part of the stalled Odsal Sporting Village regeneration scheme.

The former hospital site has been listed as a potential area for redevelopment as part of the scheme.

Council leader Ian Greenwood said he could not make any promises about funding Odsal Sporting Village while the costs of running the Council’s services were still being evaluated in light of spending cuts.