COUNCILLORS have approved plans for a multi million pound exhibition and events centre to be build on a site that has been vacant for 37 years.

An application for a new events and function centre, ten industrial units and a 188 space car park were supported by members of Bradford Council's Regulatory and Appeals Committee yesterday afternoon - despite Council officers claiming the plans should be refused.

Bradford based Ingleby Developments submitted the application late in 2018, and say the scheme would create 100 jobs and involve up to £6 million investment.

The venue would host weddings as well as functions, exhibitions and conferences.

However, the site, on Princeroyd Way behind Wickes on Ingleby Road, has been allocated as a possible future waste management site for the Bradford District.

New events venue would 'prejudice future waste management plans' - Councillors to be told

When the Committee met to decide on the plan, officers said this allocation a reason the application should be refused.

They also claimed such a development should be located in the city centre, not an edge of centre location like this site. It could draw business away from the city centre - they claimed.

But at Thursday's meeting, members were not willing to turn down such a big investment in the city.

The applicants had argued that since no waste companies had shown interest in the site, they should be allowed to develop the area.

They also claimed that no city-centre site was suitable for such a development, arguing there were no sites with the space needed for the building and the large car park it required.

When asked by Councillors, officers admitted that there had been "no particular interest" expressed in the site by waste management companies.

When pressed on suitable city centre sites, officers pointed out that there was adequate parking in the centre.

Councillor Mike Ellis (Cons, Bingley Rural) pointed out that visitors to such a venue would expect to be able to park near the venue, not in a car park 10 minutes walk away.

Councillor Aneela Ahmed (Lab, City) spoke on behalf of the applicant, saying: "None of the residents in the area are in favour of this land being used as a waste management site.

"Surely this proposed investment in the site is worth more than uncertainty and fear the land could remain empty for another 14 years in the faint hope it would be taken on by a waste management company."

She said no available sites in the city centre had the same capacity and flexibility.

Agent for the applicant Joe Steel pointed out that waste management companies were not "shrinking violets" and that if one was interested in the site, they would have acted by now.

Councillor Mohammed Amran (Lab, Heaton) said the site had been derelict since he was a child, and added: "How long are we going to keep the site like this, like a dump? We've got a businessman willing to invest in this site, why are we trying to stop him?"

Despite the refusal, members of the committee unanimously decided it should be approved.

They said one condition of the approval should be that no fireworks are allowed to be set off on the site.

Due to the site being allocated as a waste management site, the decision will have to be referred to the Secretary of State before the full permission is granted.