MORE than 50 people attended a special meeting in Silsden to discuss plans for the town’s new primary school.

The town council called the meeting to gauge residents’ reaction to controversial proposals for a two-storey school building on a hill above Silsden Park.

Councillors wanted to learn which issues most concerned the public before sending their official response to Bradford Council about its planning application for the school.

The application states that parents will drive into the school grounds from the Bolton Road side and exit on the other side onto Howden Road.

Councillors and residents fear this will worsen Silsden’s existing traffic problems, and have demanded the council’s highways department submit a report detailing measures to ensure this does not happen.

Silsden Town Council chairman Peter Robinson said: “There were quite a few people at the meeting but it wasn’t as rowdy as I expected. I think there was a unanimous verdict that people are quite happy with the school.

“But they were not happy about access and egress. We felt we couldn’t make any comments on that until we got a response from highways.”

Some residents questioned why the site had been chosen for a school, so Adrian Naylor, a town and district councillor, explained that Bradford had looked at about seven sites but rejected the others as unsuitable.

Cllr Naylor said the residents’ other main concern was about the look of the proposed building.

He said: “They want to make sure it is in keeping with the surroundings. An ultramodern design doesn’t fit. It can be seen from miles around on the side of a hill and there are lots of paths nearby.

“Some other new schools in the area have been painted white. One suggestion has been to look at stone cladding for the new Silsden Primary School.”