NEWLY-released blueprints for Silsden’s planned primary school have received mixed views from local politicians.

District councillor Andrew Mallinson has demanded Bradford Council go back to the drawing board and choose a different location for the two-storey building.

But Adrian Naylor, who serves on both Bradford and Silsden councils, claims the site above Silsden playing fields was the only one out of seven investigated that was both affordable and big enough for a school.

Cllr Naylor said that while people living near the school would object to the planned access routes, “10 times the number” would he happy the town was finally getting a new school.

Silsden’s existing oversubscribed schools, Aire View Infants and Hothfield Junior, are both on landlocked sites in the town centre.

The council revealed last year that it had bought land for a new school on fields bordered on either side by the Banklands and Daisy Hill estates.

The two existing Silsden schools merged last September in readiness for the move, but will use their existing buildings until the new school is complete.

The plans call for a two-storey building on a hill slope with classrooms on either side of a central corridor.

Parents would drive in from the Bolton Road side of Silsden, accessing the school site along Hawber Cote Lane, and exit along Middleway to return to central Silsden at the congested Howden Road/Kirkgate junction.

Cllr Mallinson said the new school should instead be sited on part of Silsden’s recreation ground, and the existing school sites turned into recreational land.

He said: “That would bring the school down to the centre of town so there were more opportunities for parents to walk their children to school.

“The chosen location will cause absolute gridlock, as the town’s parents try to drive their children to school and collect them. The majority of residents live on the opposite side of the main road.”

Cllr Naylor, however, insisted the chosen site was the only feasible one, but said he was not yet convinced about the proposed plans for vehicle access.

He said: “There are concerns that the council’s traffic survey was done using historic information. I haven’t seen the highways engineers’ possible solutions to the access problems.”

Silsden town councillor Peter Robinson said he did not want to comment until his members had gauged public reaction to the plans at a special meeting on Thursday, November 16.

The town council will open its 7.30pm planning meeting in the town hall to the public so they can examine the blueprints in detail, ask questions and pass on comments.