SIR - I am somewhat bemused by the report on September 18 from the property forum alleging that it is taking up to five years for development sites to become available, and that the "other West Yorkshire councils have stolen a march on us", according to a spokesperson from North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.
Firstly, I am not aware what a spokesperson from North Yorkshire knows about what is and is not available in Bradford. Secondly, I meet regularly with my counterparts who have responsibility for planning in the councils in the Leeds City Region.
Therefore I know exactly what stage each of them are at with their Local Plan, and only Wakefield has an agreed plan.
The rest are at very different stages of the complex process. Leeds have just started consultation and Kirklees will probably be consulting in November, but this does not mean that they are releasing sites.
In Bradford we have been approached by well-known national developers who would like to build but only on our green belt and who are not interested in the sites we do have available.
Neither I nor the people of Bradford think this reasonable and we won’t be bullied or shamed into releasing Green Belt.
Cllr Val Slater, Executive member for Housing, Planning and Transport, Bradford Council, c/o City Hall, Bradford
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