PLANS for a housing development and car parking near Shipley Railway Station have been approved.

Skipton Properties’ Shipley Exchange development will include a total of 85 homes, new access and building on a brownfield site in a cul-de-sac in Crag Road.

The company was also granted permission for an access road, bridge and extension to the station car park by Bradford Council.

The development will include a mixture of two, three and four-bedroom properties and one-bedroom starter apartments. Work is expected to be completed by August 2019.

Shipley MP Philip Davies said: “I’m all for building on brownfield sites in Shipley.

“The only issue I have is the traffic around the junction of Carr Lane, Leeds Road and Crag Road is an absolute nightmare and needs to be looked at.

“What’s key as well with this development is offering homes to young people to get them on the housing ladder. If it helps them then it will be fantastic.”

Sarah Barraclough, operations director of Skipton Properties, said: “Shipley Exchange will not only bring 50 starter apartments to the district, where buyers can purchase at a reduction of 20 per cent off market value, there will also be a mix of two, three or four-bedroom two-storey homes within the scheme.”

The planning permission for the site comes after Morrisons pulled out of plans to build a new store in Shipley in January this year.

The Bradford-based retailer had won a fiercely competitive three-way contest to build a supermarket in the town three years ago, but has now confirmed that it has withdrawn from the scheme.

Morrisons and Skipton Properties had won planning permission in December 2013 with their scheme Shipley Exchange, which also included 101 homes, a petrol station and an extension to the station car park.

Planning documents reveal the housing element of the scheme has been beset with problems. When work began to clear the site last summer, it became apparent that there had been tipping there. Clearance work was completed in January.

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