Ilkley council urges people to fight housing plans (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Ilkley council urges people to fight housing plans

9:10am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Ilkley

A council has warned people against ‘sleep-walking’ into accepting controversial plans for developments in the Wharfe Valley for the next 15 years.

Ilkley Parish Council is also urging other councils and groups in the area to work together to fight plans unveiled by Bradford Council for the Local Development Framework (LDF).

The LDF, which will influence planning and other local authority decisions until 2028, proposes 3,000 new houses in the valley, 1,300 of which may be in Ilkley itself.

But following a meeting attended by about 100 concerned residents in the town, the parish council has now submitted a formal response to Bradford Council’s proposals and has warned the town will not cope with the proposals.

The response calls for residents and other organisations to make their voices heard during the consultation period which ends later this month.

“Local people should be involved at the beginning and throughout the progress of development, taking into account changes which will inevitably occur,” the response says. “Local groups along the Wharfe Valley should join together to fight these proposals.

“All parish and town councils should work together.

“We should not sleep-walk into allowing Bradford Council to have its way against the wishes of the local population, no matter how long it takes.”

In an accompanying letter, signed off by parish council chairman Heathcliffe Bowen, he said people had serious concerns.

“We believe that the comments from Ilkley organisations, businesses and people, expressing serious concerns that current infrastructure (including those relating to transport, education and health) will not support the proposed volumes of new and affordable housing and will provide valuable inputs to the LDF consultation which should be given serious consideration by Bradford Council,” he said.