EARLY discussions are under way in a process that could eventually see nearly 600 homes built at five sites across the Bradford district.

And councillors are predicting that more developers and landowners may now start testing the waters for future housing developments.

A number of so-called “screening requests” for sites throughout the district have been submitted to Bradford Council in the last week. They are not full planning applications, but a sign that developers are considering potential future developments by seeing what studies would be needed into these sites before a planning application was submitted.

l In Cottingley, there is a scoping request for a development of between 150 and 220 houses on a plot of land at March Cote Lane.

l In Denholme, there is a screening request for a possible development of 112 houses at Long Causeway

l In Sandy Lane, land off Florida Road is subject of a screening request for 98 homes

l In Clayton, there is a request for a possible 32-house development on land off Delph Grove.

The four requests mentioned above have been submitted by Charles Patchett.

l In Queensbury, land off Julian Drive is the subject of a screening request for 135 houses, submitted by George Upite.

All the sites are on fields at the edge of the towns or villages.

The requests are all linked to the Council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, which was created to establish if there were enough sites available in the district to deliver new homes.

The council predicts that 42,100 new homes will be needed by 2030, although the exact sites have yet to be allocated.

Richard Mowat, agent for the five new applications, said the requests were submitted to see whether the sites would need environmental impact assessments if full planning applications were submitted. He said any planning applications would still be some time away, and these requests would allow applicants to be prepared if and when the sites were allocated as suitable for housing.

The requests have been made public on Bradford Council’s planning website and the Cottingley proposal has already attracted around 30 objections, mostly from local residents raising issues such as potential extra pressure on roads and local services.

Councillor Richard Dunbar, (Lab, Thornton and Allerton) said: “I have been working very closely with Sandy Lane Parish Council and with local residents, and there is already a lot of pressure on local infrastructure.

“I know this isn’t a planning application, but I feel the idea of houses in this area will receive a lot of objections based on the conversations I’ve had with people. These applications are landowners and developers putting their line in the sand, but I think everyone has to be very mindful of what the residents of these areas say.”

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservatives and whose Bingley Rural ward includes Cottingley and Denholme, said: “The council has taken a very long time in sorting out their allocations, and it seems like now we might get a lot of developers or landowners attempting to get ahead of the game and put sites forward. You might start to get more people submitting these screening reports to see what the potential is to develop them, to test the council’s defences.

“At the moment I think it is right that people are putting in objections.”

A Council spokesperson said: “These applications are not planning applications but are for a Screening Opinion. A Screening Opinion is the Council’s opinion of whether a planning application for the development of the site would need to be accompanied by an Environmental Statement.

“A screening opinion does not convey any form of planning consent and does not provide any indication of whether the site is or is not suitable for development.

“It is just a three-week process to establish whether a development on the site would be Environmental Impact Assessment development or not.

“There is no indication that a planning application will be submitted in the near future for any of these sites but if it is it would be widely publicised as part of a separate process.”