CRAVEN ward’s newest district councillor Owen Goodall has become embroiled in a row over his election leaflet.

Fellow members of Silsden Town Council blasted the fledgling politician for claiming the town could be hit with a 22.5-acre waste plant.

David Loud, who stood against Cllr Goodall in the recent Bradford Council elections, told last week’s town council meeting that Cllr Goodall’s revelations about a potential waste site near Cringles were “out-of-date and inaccurate”.

Another town councillor, Mark Wogden, resigned the following day in the wake of the row.

Cllr Goodall, who stood for the Tories, issued a campaign leaflet that, under the heading Breaking News, proclaimed “Labour’s Local Plan = huge waste management site for Silsden”.

The leaflet stated: “22.5 acres of land have been designated to be used for a Waste Management Facility, right here in Silsden.

“The sizeable development located between Cringle Lane and Bank Lane has been set aside by Bradford’s Labour Council, with the potential for it to be used as giant Waste Management site – a site equivalent to 11 full-sized football pitches.”

In response, Cllr Loud read a lengthy statement to the town council objecting to Cllr Goodall’s claims.

He said: “Having extensively investigated the claims myself with council members and officers, and studied information on the council website, it was clear there was no legitimacy to the way the information has been presented. I’m convinced the leaflet was a calculatingly-timed decision to put a message into the public domain which presented out-of-date and inaccurate information in an inflammatory way.”

Cllr Loud said that in 2015 Bradford Council listed 168 potential waste sites across the district, but classified the Cringles site as unsuitable for several reasons.

He said this week: “As elected members, it is imperative that we are held accountable at all times and take responsibility for our actions and statements in a mature way.”

Speaking this week, Cllr Goodall stood by his claims that – however unlikely – the Cringles site was still at risk of development.

He said the site still remained on a list of potential sites in Bradford Council’s Local Plan, the long-term strategy that guides development across the district.

He said: “The Local Plan was set out five years ago, but the fact is that it’s an ongoing plan. The Cringles site may be used in the future, if a private company had enough money to develop the site.

“I never said it was definitely going to happen. It may possibly never happen but we wanted to bring it to people’s attention.”

Cllr Goodall said he would try to get City Hall to classify the Cringles site as greenbelt and remove it from the list, so it would be “completely forgotten about”.

Town councillor Mark Wogden said the issue was one of the reasons he had resigned from the council last week.

He added: “Whilst I had hoped to influence the council in a more progressing and positive direction during the last year, things seem only to have slipped back last week into the habitual ‘Bradford bashing’ ways.”

Adrian Naylor, a long-standing Bradford and Silsden councillor, confirmed the Cringles was one of 160-plus potential waste sites on a ‘long-list’ several years ago.

He said he and other ward councillors successfully fought against another potential Silsden site, where Aldi now stands.

He said they would have also campaigned against the Cringles site if there had been any likelihood of it being used.