Bradford Bulls - Britain's top rugby league club - face a new battle in their bid to create a world class stadium at Odsal.

Plans by the reigning Super League Champions and Challenge Cup winners for a £13 million redevelopment of the famous ground were in jeopardy today after the Government ordered that a public inquiry will be heard into Bradford Council's decision to reject a plan to build 150 homes nearby.

Today, Bulls chairman Chris Caisley warned the stadium development plans would be killed off if the housing scheme, on the site of a former hospital, went ahead.

"Housing on this site would blight the prospect of ever being able to redevelop Odsal Stadium," he said.

"It would also prevent the city from putting together any reasonable strategy for sport in Bradford and would be contrary to the Government's own stated objective of consolidating sport in the community around the profession club.

"Sport England wants to see all manner of sport at Odsal, not just at our stadium but surrounding it. It would make the club the focal point and drive of sport in Bradford in this location because of the excellent motorway links.

"We believe best value can be achieved by integrating that land within a plan for all sports within the city. It would be a black day for Bradford, and for sport, if housing was permitted there."

The Council's area planning panel rejected the application by Health Secretary John Reid for homes to be built on the former Northern View Hospital site in Rooley Avenue in September.

Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, has decided a public inquiry will be held after Mr Reid's department appealed against the decision.

The inquiry is scheduled for May but today panel chairman, Councillor Clive Richardson, said the Council had now decided to ask Department of Health to resubmit its plans in a bid to get a speedier decision.

The panel turned down the application on the grounds that it was premature because a decision had not yet been made about the designation of the land in the district wide Unitary Development Plan.

The result of a public inquiry into the UDP - a blueprint which will determine land use across the district for the next 15 years - is expected in the spring.

Labour ward Councillor Dave Green said he feared the panel decision to invite the Health Secretary to make a new planning application indicated it was likely to get approval.

Coun Green (Lab, Odsal) said he believed a decision to allow housing on the land, would be short-sighted and it would badly hit the Bulls and sport as a whole.

"It would also be a very unpleasant environment for anybody wanting to buy a house there."

The Bulls have been trying for more than a decade to get the stadium transformed into a world-class stadium but each multi-million pound development plan has failed.

Last year the club decided to go it alone after the Council ended a long-running tenancy agreement and awarded it a one-off £4.6 million payment in compensation.

The club is funding the whole of the first phase of the £13m scheme alone but will need to bring in partners to develop leisure and recreation in order for the remainder of it to be viable.

A two-storey state-of-the-art hospitality building is completed but many other facilities are planned. The club believes a housing development will drastically restrict further development and could deter other partners.

David Rixson, director of architects and planning consultants Vincent and Gorbin which is representing the Health Secretary, said: "I am making arrangements to meet Bradford Council to discuss the best way forward. We are interested in what it has to say."

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