Campaigners hope a derelict school becomes a housing estate as soon as possible, but fear developers might sit on the site as a “land bank.”
Bradford Council has approved the transformation of Branshaw Special School in Keighley to a 25-house cul-de- sac.
The school, on Nashville Road, has been closed since April 2010, when pupils were transferred to Phoenix School in Braithwaite.
Deemed “surplus to requirements”, the site will now be marketed to housing developers by Bradford Council which obtained planning permission to develop houses, and storage and parking facilities for the neighbouring Clockhouse respite care home.
The Bandag group say they are pleased a brownfield site will be re-used but wants the eventual developer to promise they won’t sit on it until the market improves.
Recent figures show that planning permission has been granted for more than 11,000 homes in the Bradford district that work has not yet started on.
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