A STONE yard in Keighley could become a new depot for the town’s school buses if plans are approved tomorrow.

Bus company Transdev submitted a planning application to create a depot for 65 buses on land on Marriner Walk, just of Worth Way, last December.

If approved it would lead to the re-location of the company’s existing depot on Woodhouse Road.

Tomorrow morning members of Bradford Council’s Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel will decide whether to allow the scheme to progress. Planning officers have recommended the application be approved - but on a smaller scale.

A report to the panel says 15 people have objected to the plans, raising concerns about traffic congestion the new site would cause, and the impact on exiting businesses on the street.

And the panel will be told that although highways officers have raised some concerns, they were not serious enough to refuse the plans.

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The report going to the committee says: “Concerns are raised regarding potential conflict between existing traffic and servicing for existing businesses along Marriner Road with the proposed traffic that would be generated by the use of the application site as bus depot.”

Transdev have said the buses would mainly travel from the site between 6am and 7.30am when the road is “lightly parked.” Buses would then return to the site between 8.30am and 10.00am.

Referring to the company’s traffic survey, the report going to the panel says: “The survey information shows that there are likely to be 21 buses leaving for the afternoon runs in a half hour period between 2.00pm to 2.30pm, which may experience some difficulties in travelling along Marriner Road depending on what servicing might be taking place on the highway at that time for the existing units/workshops.”

The report concludes: “The Councils Highways Section, following very careful consideration, advise that whilst there is potential for occasional conflict between busses and vehicles servicing businesses in Marriner Road that there are no sustainable highway reasons for refusal, the submitted surveys and studies all demonstrate acceptable impact on the immediate and wider transport network.”

One of the proposed conditions of the approval is that “a maximum of 55 busses shall be kept within the external area of the site and 3 within the workshop building at any one time.” Highways officers say this in the maximum numbers of buses that could park on the site without having to reverse out onto the main highway.

Another condition if the plans are approved will be that the applicants fund a traffic order, such as double yellow lines, “to restrict some parking around the site entrance on Marriner Road.”

The panel meets in Keighley Town Hall at 10am.