COUNCILLORS have approved a controversial housing development in Silsden, saying they had no reason in planning law to refuse it.

One objector to the scheme said the decision “doesn’t inspire my confidence in local democracy”.

An application to build over 40 homes on a field ­– known as the Willows – next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, was refused by members of Bradford Council’s regulatory and appeals committee last year.

Members felt that the vehicular access to the site, off Hainsworth Road, was inadequate to support a housing estate of that size.

Applicant Mick Smith appealed that decision, but his appeal was dismissed by a planning inspector last summer.

The inspector dismissed the appeal because there was not enough affordable housing included in the plans, but disagreed with the council’s decision that the access to the site was inadequate.

The plans were re-submitted, this time with a 20 per cent affordable housing provision, and members of the committee discussed the latest application at a meeting last Thursday.

Planning officers had advised members to approve the plans, pointing out that a Government inspector had already deemed the highways access to be safe.

The application was only in outline form – a more detailed application will have to be submitted in future – but the meeting heard that around 44 homes would be built on the site.

Craven ward councillor Rebecca Whitaker pointed out that the land had been dismissed as a potential housing site in the council’s draft Local Plan, which is currently out to public consultation.

She said the Willows was listed as a site in Silsden “unsuitable” for housing.

But she was told that as the Local Plan has yet to be adopted, and would not likely be fully adopted for some years, members could only give “limited weight” to this consideration.

One objector Stuart Clarkson said: “It doesn’t inspire my confidence in local democracy when an unelected inspector, after making a single site visit during a pandemic, decided the highways access was safe.”

But committee chairman Councillor David Warburton said: “The inspector clearly overruled our previous decision, and we can’t find any other reason to refuse it.”