Traffic trouble on Otley Road in Baildon will worsen if plans for 110 new homes go ahead in the New Year, warns a councillor.

A proposal to create a new estate on Cliffe Lane West was unveiled at a public consultation held in Baildon Library two weeks ago.

The scheme is for an as-yet unnamed housing association to build a mix of homes for sale or rent on designated building land which is owned by Bradford Council.

And the so-called “lifestyle” houses would have an adaptable number of bedrooms, thanks to removable partition walls.

But Councillor Val Townend (Con, Baildon) is worried that an estimated 200 vehicles belonging to future residents would create serious problems on surrounding roads.

She said: “We just build and build, but have no infrastructure to support it all.

“I’ve got serious concerns relating to the proposal to build these houses before necessary improvements to transport and road junctions take place.

“Yes, this is designated land, but what it means is that most of the cars that go with these homes – none of which have garages – will all be heading down to Green Lane and then to Otley Road where they will mainly be trying to turn right.”

She said council planners set too much store by the imagined use of public transport when considering such schemes.

“I think the anticipated use of public transport is often over-optimistic,” she said “And they’ll still need to drive into Shipley in order to catch the train,” she said.

“The new homes themselves are interesting in that they can be partitioned to either be two or three bedroomed.

“So that if the number of occupants goes down, the house can be easily converted into a two bedroom and so avoid what they call ‘the bedroom tax’. We know new houses need to be built, but what we need to do is get infrastructure sorted out first – such as traffic lights to control the Green Lane and Otley Road junction.”

Bradford Council’s lead member on housing issues Coun Val Slater (Lab, Royds) said she had discussed the matter with Coun Townend and explained it was very hard to obtain funding for such infrastructure at this early stage.

“It’s a bit like chicken and the egg in that it’s very difficult to obtain money for traffic infrastructure up front,” she said.

“These issues will be addressed as any application is being decided and Coun Townend will have the opportunity to comment on it during that process.”

“I do support this application, in a way it’s a plus, plus situation for the council as it’s a brownfield site and obviously the council is doing its part to try and supply new homes for the district,” Coun Slater said.