A pressure group hoping to reverse a Council decision for a £25million business park has put together a dossier of photos of disused land and empty factories nearby.

Baildon Residents Against Inappropriate Development (BRAID) is set to put in an official complaint to Bradford Council over a decision to grant planning permission for the hi-tech park off Otley Road, Shipley.

Chairman Dr Stephen Walker has put together a series of a dozen sites which are within half a mile of the proposed site of the business park in Buck Lane.

They include 130,000 sq m of factory space at the headquarters of the former Havells Sylvania lighting factory, the former British Mohair Spinners site, empty units at Baildon Bridge, Dockfield Road.

Dr Walker sent in the dossier in response to a derelict land survey as part of the Save Our Green Spaces campaign, backed by the Telegraph & Argus.

Dr Walker said: “The T&A campaign is perfect timing for us, because we are campaigning not to build on the green fields in Buck Lane but to consider all of the other sites.

“It is going to cost £3 million to level the site and put a road in there but these other sites already have roads and are already there for businesses to move into.

“Because of the fact that the Council owns the Buck Lane site, seems to have blinded them to any other options.”

BRAID will now submit a formal complaint against the Council, Dr Walker said.

That is because the planning committee which granted planning permission was told by a senior officer that there was no contamination coming from the site, he said.

However, BRAID believes that harmful chemicals from the former Baildon Chemical Factory have seeped on to the site, causing contamination.

The group also believe that it was not made clear to members of the Shipley Area Planning Panel that planning policies which dictated the site must be used for employment could have been overturned by the committee.

At the time, committee members said they granted planning permission in spite of protests from the community because their “hands were tied”.

No-one from the Council was available to comment last night.

e-mail: marc.meneaud @telegraphandargus.co.uk.