A CAR park could be built on a site that was once earmarked for a “landmark” development of almost 140 flats.

A planning application to clear an overgrown site at 140 Thornton Road and create a 41 space car park was submitted to Bradford Council last month.

It is a very different scheme than what was originally planned for the site.

In 2015 Bradford Council granted planning permission to Golden Sands developments to completely transform the former workshop site, which is overlooked by the Hollings Mill building and lies within the Goitside Conservation Area.

The plans included a new building of 138 apartments spread out over nine storeys, with four shops and a cafe on the ground floor and a landscaped courtyard.

A description of the original plans for the site said: “The prominent site on the approach to Bradford City Centre requires a landmark building with contemporary design and materials to form quality and a building which will further enhance the Thornton Road corridor further enhancing Bradford as a key location in which to live and work and for better architecture to be incorporated into the city’s future as one of the most diverse in the country.”

Toolstation plan for Thornton Road mill unit

However last year Golden Sands went into administration, citing cash flow issues, bringing a halt to a number of Bradford developments.

The Thornton Road site was subsequently sold as part of the administration process before any construction work on the proposed residential scheme had begun.

Since then the land has continued to deteriorate, and is currently boarded up and heavily overgrown.

In Bradford Council’s City Centre Area Action Plan, which plots future growth in the city centre, the site is allocated for housing.

The new car park application for the land, submitted by Kamran Khan, is to create a dropped kerb onto Thornton Road and lay out the site to create a car park.

However, the Council’s Highways Department has raised concerns about the scheme. They said access to the car park would be across a cycle lane, and between on street parking bays.

They said: “The marked parking bays are well used during the day and parked cars will limit the available view for vehicles exiting the parking area.

“It is likely that the parked cars would not only mask views of oncoming vehicles but of cyclists using the cycle lane, particularly in the critical right direction toward Thornton.

“The proposed parking is likely to generate a significant number of vehicle movements every day into and out from this parking. This would lead to intensification in use of an entrance which would not have been expected to be utilised in this way or see such a number of potential vehicle movements. This intensification would likely lead to an increased risk of emerging vehicles coming into conflict with traffic on Thornton Road.”

A decision on the application is expected by December.