A “MASSIVE milestone” has been passed in the creation of a new £150m urban village, project bosses have said.

The New Bolton Woods development already has outline planning permission for 1,000 homes, as well as a new school, village centre and shops in Bradford’s Canal Road corridor.

Today, a planning committee granted full consent for 145 of the homes, on greenfield land off Poplars Park Road.

But another committee will now be asked to look more closely at one controversial aspect of the detailed plan - opening Poplars Park Road up as a through-route between busy King’s Road and Canal Road.

Residents raised their fears that if the road - currently a dead end - was opened up as planned, it would become a rat-run past a busy primary school.

Hinaa Toheed, of the residents’ group Proposals Over Poplars, said: “It’s going to be dangerous for the residents and their children.”

But planners said it had always been the intention for the road to be opened up in this way, once the scheme began.

Councillor David Ward (Ind, Bolton and Undercliffe), speaking on behalf of objectors, said: “This road was always intended to be a through-road, but this was 20-odd years ago when this road was built and the scale of development has increased.”

He also asked which schools the children would go to, saying the report said there were “plenty of schools in the area but it doesn’t say they are full”.

A planning officer said there were plans to expand Poplars Farm Primary on Poplars Park Road.

The Regulatory and Appeals Committee also grilled developers about heavy losses to two woodlands, including one planted by the Forest of Bradford initiative in the 1990s.

One committee member, Councillor Alan Wainwright, said he couldn’t understand why trees would be lost in current plans, when earlier plans had shown that the woodland wouldn’t be affected.

He said: “Now you’re saying it has to go. I really, really can’t understand that.”

The meeting heard that the viability of the scheme meant that the developers couldn’t build fewer than 145 homes on the land, but planning agent Nigel Cussen said 250 replacement trees would be spread over the site.

The committee approved the plans but asked for the Bradford East Area Committee to look at the implications of opening Poplars Park Road as a through-route and consider any traffic calming measures that might be necessary.

The New Bolton Woods urban village is being developed by Canal Road Urban Village Limited, a partnership between Bradford Council and development firm Urbo Regeneration.

A first phase of housing is already complete and the team also have consent to build a new Aldi food store at the junction of Canal Road and Stanley Road.

Housebuilder Keepmoat has been brought in to build these next 145 homes.

Urbo director Andy Dainty welcomed the committee's decision, saying it was a "massive milestone" in the wider project.

He said: “It has been a lot of hard work but well worthwhile. We will be looking forward to putting a spade in the ground as early as we can next year.”

He said the scheme was still dependent on securing a £3.6m grant from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, but that he was hoping they would approve this within the next few months.

Asked why he thought Poplars Park Road should be opened to through traffic, Mr Dainty said: “We don’t want it to be a rat-run, we want it to be a through road.

“We want our new residents, and existing ones, to be able to get to the local centre and the Aldi in the shortest way.”

On how plans for a new school were progressing, Mr Dainty said nearby Poplars Farm Primary was being expanded first, and a new school for the urban village “would be a school for the future”.

He said: “That would then be a few years away.”