SIR – Few would argue with your editorial comment (T&A, March 7) that Bradford Council has a great opportunity to protect our green spaces, while regenerating derelict and disused urban sites for housing. Few, that is, apart from the Labour-run council itself.

Some years ago the council granted itself planning permission for housing on a greenfield site it owns to the north of Close Head, with access from Thornton Road, as part of a housing development adjoining Thornton Cemetery. Not content with that it’s now applied for access to the housing site across green belt land off Hill Top Road.

Instead of the cottage-style properties recommended by the planners it wants to build 16 three-storey terraced houses on the site. Bradford Council should be setting an example to other landowners by developing previously-used land first. The appropriate member of the Executive Committee should order the withdrawal of the application.

Clive Richardson, Conservative candidate, Thornton and Allerton Ward, Brontë Old Road, Thornton