CONTROVERSIAL plans for news homes in an area under threat of "eradication" from new developments have drawn unprecedented levels of interest from buyers, according to the developer.

Ben Bailey Homes said more than 800 potential buyers have already shown interest in the 69 homes, which went on sale this month, at the seven acre former Stylo shoe business site at Apperley Bridge.

The first houses of the £20 million project are expected to be ready people to move into August 2015.

Planning applications in the area recently have included 130 homes on fields neighbouring the Stylo site, off Harrogate Road next to St John the Evangelist Church, 267 homes at Simpson’s Green and 270-home development at nearby Cote Farm, Thackley, was recommended for approval in August.

In January, ward councillor Jeanette Sunderland said the green quarter of the Greengates was being "eradicated" by the schemes.

The Apperley Green development on Harrogate Road will include three, four and five-bedroom townhouses, semi-detached and detached properties priced between £249,950 and £415,000.

Ben Bailey Homes’ sales director Steve Rider said: "We’ve experienced extraordinary levels of interest already in Apperley Green and because of this we expect homes to sell very quickly once released."

Mr Rider said the design of the new homes had been based on extensive consumer research and took account of current living trends.

Plans for the Apperley Green site were welcomed by a senior Bradford councillor when they were revealed in March.

Councillor Val Slater, the Council executive member for housing and planning, said work on the site would hopefully push forward funding to improve a nearby congested main road junction.

She said it was in line with the the local authority’s aim to see more brownfield sites developed . It would also increase pressure for improvements at the nearby busy Harrogate Road and New Line junction at Greengates, for which funding is being sought from the West Yorkshire Transport Fund.

But objectors are concerned about pressures on roads and schools.

Ben Bailey Homes’ managing director Mark Mitchell said buying the Apperley Bridge site was a significant investment for the business and was one of several new developments across Yorkshire in 2015.

The site, next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, was the headquarters of a shoe empire owned by the Ziff family since 1935.

It closed after the company, formerly Stylo plc and renamed Barrett Shoes, collapsed into administration for the third time in four years in November 2013.