RESIDENTS in part of Bradford have raised strong concerns about plans for a new business park in their village.

Lynne O'Neill, who is one of the residents campaigning against the scheme that could create up to 1,000 jobs, said it would "kill" the village because no one would want to live there.

Mrs O'Neill said the move, which is part of a strategy of regenerating Yorkshire Water’s redundant sites, was totally unsuitable because its roads would not be able to cope and lives would be put at risk.

It is Keyland Developments Ltd, the property trading arm of Kelda Group, which also includes Yorkshire Water, that has unveiled the plans to transform the former North Bierley waste water treatment works, close to the M62 and M606 motorways, into a 57 acre business and industrial complex.

A Keyland spokesman said an application would be submitted in the next few weeks and that feedback from a public consultation was still being looked at.

Keyland is planning to create 500,000 sq ft of space for a range of industrial and distribution uses designed to address a chronic shortage of new industrial accommodation, particularly along the M62 corridor in West Yorkshire.

Nearby business parks in south Bradford and north Kirklees are already operating at full capacity, offering limited opportunities for local and regionally based businesses to expand, it says.

But Mrs O'Neill said when developers announced their plans to create jobs they omitted to mention the development would be in the small village of Woodlands which is part of Oakenshaw.

"They also omitted to mention the dangers of the access road and how unsuitable it was with a small primary school on the corner. Everyone who has access to the village knows how ridiculous this is and how it will probably result in casualties and deaths."

Oakenshaw councillor Andrew Pinnock (Lib Dem) said there were already concerns about the village's road and that these would be intensified by extra traffic.

He said: "Residents have very real concerns. There are already road problems in the village without them being added to. I can totally sympathise with the villager and when the application goes in I'm certain one of the issues that planning officers will highlight will be the highways.

"Who knows what the recommendation will be, I'd better not speculate."

Residents have set up an action group with their own Facebook - the page is Woodlands & Oakenshaw Against Development.

Keyland has previously pointed out that its proposals could bring back into use one of the most strategically located and extensive sites within the region and see the creation of an employment-generating industrial and business park which would make a significant contribution to the economic regeneration of the locality.