People moving into a new housing development planned next to a heritage steam railway would have to endure the din of clanking engines heaving up one of the steepest gradients, it has been claimed.

Plans have been proposed to build 64 houses on a green field site at Damems, very close to one of the most picturesque stations on the Keighley & Worth Valley line.

The railway is one of 85 objectors to the scheme.

The boundary of the plot runs for some distance next to the line and near one of the steepest sections on the five-mile route.

David Kay, the railway's director of property, said: "I wouldn't live there and I like trains.

"The engines are working like hell up that stretch of the line - they are making a lot of noise. And they have to sound the engine's whistle on approaching the level crossing.

"That stretch and the one coming out of Keighley are two of the hardest and engines are really blasting."

Mr Kay said the development would spoil the outlook from the railway and there was a danger of losing all the green open space on that side of the line from Ingrow upwards.

He said he understood that Bradford Council had promised to retain a green corridor on either side of the line.

"We want as much green round the railway as possible," he said.

Planning officers are recommending that the scheme is approved when Keighley area planning panel meets on tomorrow. Planners say there are concerns over extra traffic using the unsuitable unsurfaced Damems Lane. But new landscaping proposals and planting would be beneficial.

A Bradford Council spokesman said a condition of the outline permission was that houses should not be built within 85 metres of the railway.

The developer, Skipton Properties, was also obliged to plant trees to shield the property from the railway.