Campaigners battling house-building on green fields in the Bradford district have heaped praise on plans to use wasteland for a major homes scheme.

Developers want to build the properties off Woodend Crescent, Windhill, Shipley, where flats – described as the worst in Bradford – once stood before they were bulldozed in 2005.

Since then, the large grassed area has become a magnet for vandals, arsonists and young drinkers.

Developers Keepmoat Homes and social housing provider, Incommunities, have now applied to Bradford Council for planning permission to build 136 two, three and four-bedroom homes there.

Supporters of the Telegraph & Argus Save Our Green Spaces campaign, who are pressing the Council to encourage house-building on previously-developed land, praised the proposals as being exactly the right way to regenerate the eyesore site.

Heaton Township Association (HTA) is collecting a petition of 1,500 signatures to be presented to the Council demanding brownfield sites and derelict property are re-developed before more green fields are swallowed up.

Its chairman, Elizabeth Hellmich, described the proposals for Woodend as “an excellent use of space”.

“This is exactly what we are looking for,” she said. “Let’s have many more projects similar to this one to help rejuvenate our city and provide much-needed housing at the same time.”

Under the latest plans, 57 two-bed homes, 77 three-bed and two four-bed properties will be built on the site with 196 associated parking spaces, gardens and landscaped surroundings.

A mixture of semi detached, terraced housing and bungalows will stand on the 108,000 sq ft site if the scheme is given the go-ahead. It is understood that 31 will be affordable homes run by Incommunities.

Windhill and Wrose Labour Councillor, Vanda Greenwood, who lived in the former flats in the late 1970s, said: “This piece of land is a gateway to Shipley and the World Heritage Site and it doesn’t give a good impression when it has been left for so long in this state.

“The site is brown-field and it is not fair that greenfield land is identified for development when there are areas like this available.”

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