CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save Clayton's countryside put their case to Council bosses today.

In a petition, signed by around 1,000 people, action group Keep Clayton Green warned that the village was “not built to cope” with the level of housebuilding the authority’s long-term planning blueprint, the Local Plan, was likely to bring.

Abigail Langford, speaking on behalf of the group, told the Council's Executive that they understood the district needed new homes, but questioned whether they were being planned for the right places.

She said: “Most people I speak to feel outrage and dismay at the lack of development of huge brownfield sites which are left to dilapidate and fall into a state of disrepair throughout and across Bradford.”

She said Clayton had already seen substantial development in recent years, with "no change to school provision, no change to the road layout, no change to doctors and dentists".

Andrew Marshall, a planning manager at Bradford Council, said the authority had a good record when it came to using brownfield sites, with 70 per cent of development in the past decade being on previously developed land.

But he said there would not be enough brownfield land to accommodate all the homes the district needed in the years to come.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Executive member for planning, said the Local Plan's core strategy, which sets out the need for 42,100 new homes across the district by 2030, had already undergone thorough scrutiny by the Government.

He said he understood housebuilding was "a really contentious issue" and the next step of the process would be to allocate specific sites for development.

Cllr Ross-Shaw said the action group had raised "valid points, actually, that will be looked at through that process".

The group had also raised concerns about specific plans by Barratt Homes to build 99 houses on a greenfield site off Westminster Avenue and Holts Lane, Clayton.

Yesterday's meeting, at City Hall, heard that the Executive could not discuss the details of this, as it would be a matter for a planning committee to consider.

The Executive noted the petition, which will be fed into the Local Plan process.