A housing developer who only builds on brownfield land has set his sights on a derelict plot in Baildon.

Andrew Mason runs Newmason properties, the company behind Victoria Mill in Shipley, and has submitted a planning application for an estate of 17 houses on the site of the former Butterfield Industrial Estate on Otley Road.

The site, Berry Works, has been marketed for sale to businesses for several years, but without any buyers coming forward the company decided to build housing on the site.

It already includes a Tesco Metro, BMW motorcycle garage and an MOT garage, and access to the houses would be via an access road between the businesses’ car parks.

The site backs onto the River Aire.

Mr Mason said the homes would help meet local housing demand without having to resort to building on green land.

He said: “We bought the site in its entirety about five years ago and have tried very hard to get another business to move onto it. We had some conversations with planners and came to the conclusion that rather than seeing it lie undeveloped, it would be a good idea to use it for a nice housing scheme.

“Baildon is a lovely location and has some great schools nearby.

“We never build on greenfield sites, we only deal with listed buildings or brownfield sites. I don’t think we should be building on greenfield, we should be making the most of sites like this.”

Mr Mason said the company would not sit on the development if it gained permission, adding: “If we get the go ahead we’d hope to start straight away, probably towards the back end of this year.”

Baildon councillor Debbie Davies (Con) said: “It’s positive that this site is brownfield and doesn’t mean building on any fields. The negative would be that we do keep adding to Otley Road, but don’t do much to help tackle the massive queues on it every morning.”

The plans will be decided by Bradford Council in October.