A MAJOR housing developer has submitted its plans to redevelop a mill site that was devastated by fire nine years ago.

Ebor Mills in Haworth was devastated by a huge fire in 2010, when the imposing building was home to Airedale Springs. Following the blaze much of the mill site was demolished for safety reasons.

Now Skipton Properties has submitted a planning application to transform the site into a development of houses and apartments. The application details plans to convert a remaining building on the site into 14 homes and build another 24 houses on the site.

Earlier this year the developer announced that it was planning to spend up to £10 million on redeveloping the site, transforming it into a “hamlet-style community.”

They held a public consultation in Haworth, where 75 per cent of those who took part said the site should not be developed for housing, and said a planning application would be forthcoming.

As well as the housing, the application is for landscaping, biodiversity and environmental enhancements, highway and footway improvements to Ebor Lane, the demolition of the weaving sheds and the partial demolition and reconstruction of the Boiler House to make an on site feature.

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There will be parking for 96 cars, and access will be via Ebor Lane.

When the fire took hold on August 14 2010 it took 70 firefighters from across Bradford district to bring the blaze under control. The top three storeys of the Ebor Lane mill were destroyed, and the building had to be demolished shortly after week.

Airedale Springs had 44 staff working in the building, and the fire left the company having to re-locate to a new base within Haworth.

The application says: “The scheme will provide a much-needed accommodation in Haworth. The proposed development presents a sensitive approach and provides a good opportunity to preserve and enhance this currently derelict site of historical importance. It will help to restore the original appearance of decaying buildings and bring them back to a beneficial use.

“If the site is not redeveloped the existing buildings of historical importance will deteriorate further and continue to have an adverse impact on appearance of that area of Haworth. The site has been designed around the existing buildings that are Grade II listed, ensuring that their historical, industrial appearance is well-respected, and all new dwellings are inkeeping with the surroundings in style, scale and massing.

“The theme and Industrial story of the site has been in the forefront of the design process considering the conversions and its setting, the extension of development along the watercourse, feature plots and associating it with the Industrial Mill and Railway Heritage and ensuring this continues throughout every element of the development to create a development that hangs together as a sum of its parts.”

The plans have already attracted eight objections, with residents raising concerns over the extra traffic to the site the properties would bring, and claims the housing would “reduce the beauty” of Haworth.

A document detailing the public response to a drop in session held by Skipton Properties is included in the application. It details comments made by the public that range from "I'm supportive of the mill being redeveloped" to "I think you are living in a dream world purely based on greed and profit - get out of our village, you are not wanted."

A decision on the application is expected in January.