Silsden councillors have expressed concern about plans by a housing developer to build a new road off one of the town’s main routes.

The town and district councillors claim there are already too many entrances and exits on the stretch of Keighley Road approaching the canal.

They would prefer an access road to be built at a safer location – nearer Steeton – to serve several potential housing developments.

The controversy surrounds a recent planning application to Bradford Council by Leeds-based Harron Homes.

The company wants to turn a strip of derelict land, lying between unadopted Albert Square and Mill Banks, into a made-up road. The road would connect the busy Keighley Road with Sykes Lane.

Harron Homes last year revealed plans to build 55 homes on land in Sykes Lane next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. No planning application has yet been submitted.

Town and district councillor Adrian Naylor said he was concerned that Harron Homes had applied for permission only for the road, with no details about any subsequent housing.

He said: “At the moment the road doesn’t go anywhere. They can’t tell us the volume of traffic that’s going to go along it, or how many houses it will serve.”

Silsden town mayor Chris Atkinson said his fellow town councillors felt the new road would be too close to other existing entrances and exits.

He also pointed out that there were several other planned building projects on Keighley Road, including an Aldi supermarket and several housing developments. Coun Atkinson said: “There are too many junctions at one point – I think there are 24 on that stretch. People are trying to build piecemeal.

“We shouldn’t look at an entrance for each new housing development, it should be one road that feeds into all of them.

“It needs a roundabout on Keighley Road which will open up all the areas for housing, and close off the little roads.”

Harron Homes declined to comment.