SILSDEN’s mayor, Councillor Chris Atkinson, is hoping to win permission to build five houses on his skip yard in the town.

The Silsden Town Council chairman has submitted a planning application to Bradford Council for the waste transfer station off Bradley Road.

The site, which could be transformed into a terrace of four homes and a single detached house, is currently used by Silsden Skips Ltd.

Cllr Atkinson last year made an unsuccessful application to build 20 houses on the yard and adjoining woodland.

The application was refused because planners felt the site could not be developed without losing an open water course and woodland, which provided Silsden with a ‘green finger’ to the outlying countryside.

The new proposal is an outline application for just the brownfield site, with only siting and access to be considered at the present time by Bradford councillors.

The application states that the development would include four two-bedroom starter homes that would provide much-needed affordable houses in Silsden.