THE first salvos have been fired in the latest battle of a six year campaign to stop a 440-home development in Micklethwaite.

An eight-day public inquiry opened at City Hall, Bradford, yesterday.

The Greenhill Action Group (GAG), which opposes the Redrow and Bellway homes estate planned for land at Sty Lane, raised £83,000 to fund its current legal action against the proposal.

"In total we've raised £200,000 over six years to fight this, which shows just how much people care about it, " said GAG chairman Terry Brown.

An initial application was turned down by Bradford Council in 2011 and also at appeal and a public inquiry.

But a revised application in 2014 was approved by the Council - leading to the current conflict.

"Residents sincerely hope this will be the final battle," Mr Brown said.

And yesterday, the opposing forces lined in the oak-panelled Council Chamber.

"Everyone ran through the basic lines of argument and time was devoted to organizing the running order," Mr Brown said.

"One thing is that the developers put in three or four new proposal documents which we were unaware of, but the inspector threw them out," he said.

Initial confrontation before government inspector George Baird involved GAG's barrister Ian Pointer quizzing Redrow and Bellway's appointed traffic expert Alison France on vehicle movement figures.

GAG deputy chairman Mick Meares said the group's barrister was already progressing their case effectively.

"We're really getting some good points across already," Mr Meares said.

"There are some 2,500 pages of dense material, but thankfully we've been able to pay consultants to make sense of it," he said.

Councillor David Heseltine (Con, Bingley) has consistently opposed the scheme, as have his fellow ward councillors John Pennington and Mark Shaw and he praised GAG for preparing a very professional case.

"If they hadn't been so successful at organisation and fundraising then mounting such a strong defence would have been almost impossible," Cllr Heseltine said.

"Ordinary folk often just tend to get bulldozed out of the way in these situations."

Micklethwaite, Crossflatts and Bingley residents will get their chance to join the fray tomorrow.

Janet Payne is one of those due to speak:

"I have five things to say, but mainly it will be about the traffic and how this will effect everything from people pulling out at junctions, to traffic around the doctors' surgery.

"It's been a long wait to get to this stage and we're going to get to have our say."

Other issues to be raised include the role of swing bridge across the Leeds and Liverpool canal, the use of remote control bollards on an emergency access to the estate and the impact on local infrastructure.