PLANS to build housing at the former site of a snooker and leisure facility have been approved by Bradford Council.

The brownfield site at Birch Lane, West Bowling, is currently empty and blighted by fly tipping, but was previously home to Game On Leisure Centre - a large building that has been a bathroom furniture store, a snooker venue and a Bingo hall before it was demolished several years ago.

An application by Raja Hussain to build four, five bedroom houses on the site has now been approved by Bradford Council. Each house would have two parking spaces.

A near identical application was approved by the Council in 2014, but work never started and the permission has now lapsed and the site is now littered with fly tipping and waste.

Planning officers said: "The proposal is likely to represent a significant improvement to the character and appearance of this street scene.

Homes plan for vacant Manningham site

"The proposed residential use of the site would remove this vacant parcel of land preventing opportunities for anti-social behaviour and will also introduce a significantly less harmful use into this predominantly residential area than the former snooker hall/leisure centre use.

" It is appreciated that the introduction of any form development on this site will increase vehicular traffic above that generated by the current vacant site. It is, however, also acknowledged that the former use of the site was as a leisure centre which had a substantially larger floorspace and as such had the potential for a substantially larger amount of vehicular traffic."