Is there a need for new homes? (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Is there a need for new homes?

SIR – I see developers are again lodging planning permission with Bradford Council for housing on the greenfield land off Micklethwaite Lane for 400 homes. This is a diabolical imposition on the residents of Crossflatts and Micklethwaite.

This land is at present green belt. Has that been forgotten? It’s going to cover a stretch along the canalside with open fields full of wildlife; there are wild geese, ducks, breeding swans, rabbits and hare in the fields. All the hedgerows, trees and green fields will be lost forever, replaced by concrete areas and roads.

The swing bridge over the canal will certainly not be adequate to take the excess traffic from these 400-odd dwellings. The traffic problem will only get worse as the south side of Crossflatts has only one outlet onto the main Bradford/Keighley road.

Everybody was told the north and south bogs would be kept intact. They didn’t say they would be reduced. The area was slowly dissembled then.

Where are the amenities and industry to uphold the growth of people? Four hundred homes on Green Lane, 200 flats off Micklethwaite Lane, 12 flats on Station Road, plus this 400 and yet another ten pending on Sleningford Road. Is that not outrageous?

R Whitehead, Sleningford Rise, Crossflatts