HUGELY controversial plans to build houses on a Menston field will be discussed by councillors tomorrow.

Proposals to build 133 houses on Bingley Road date back to 2010, and led to a major campaign in the village to stop the development.

Outline plans for housing on the site were approved by Bradford Council in 2013, but the full application was refused in 2015 over concerns that the development would lead to flooding on the site and have an adverse impact on habitats and protected species in the area.

Those original plans were submitted by Taylor Wimpey.

Another full planning application was submitted by Bellway Homes in 2017, and at a meeting of Bradford Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee tomorrow, members will decide whether the plan should be approved.

Like the previous proposals, the latest plans have attracted a large amount of opposition, with 58 people writing to the Council to object.

Those opposing the scheme include local MP Philip Davies.

But a report prepared for the committee by planning officers has recommended that councillors approve the plans, saying many of the issues that led to the previous application being refused have now been addressed by Bellway.

The application has led to three different studies into flooding on the site, one by the developers and included in the application, one by Bradford Council and one by Menston Parish Council.

Discussing the Council’s flood report, the report going to the committee says: “This work has been carried out by Arup, a multi-national firm.

“The review concludes that based on the latest evidence and analysis presented by the applicant, the applicant’s view that the site is at a low risk of flooding from all sources including groundwater is accepted.”

The response to the plans from Menston Parish Council says: “The reports, prepared for and commissioned by the applicant, contain significant misrepresentations of fact, are based on hypothesis and theory and are not founded on professional or realistic considerations of the available evidence.”

If approved there will be a number of conditions placed on the development.

These include 30 per cent of the properties being classed as affordable. Bellway would also have to create new footpaths around the site, and install information panels at access points onto the South Pennine Moors Special Protection Area.

They will also have to fund a number of highways improvements. These include £25,000 to provide dropped crossings and “tactile paving” along the route between the application site and Menston Railway Station, £7,000 for a traffic order to reduce the speed limit to 30mph on Bingley Road between the site access and Derry Hill and £24,000 for road safety measures around the Main Street/Bingley Road junction. These would include an order to discourage indiscriminate parking near the junction, the installation of six “speed plateaus” for the approaches to the junction and the installation of a Vehicle Activated Sign on Bingley Road next to the park.

The meeting starts in Bradford City Hall at 10am, but the application will not be discussed before 11am.