AN employment development in the centre of Wibsey has been approved by Bradford Council.

The scheme will see five employment units built in Forester’s yard - a plot of land off Lower George Street and behind the Ancient Foresters pub.

Each employment unit on the site, which has been vacant since 2009, will measure 70 square metres.

The permission granted by the Council will allow the units to be used as offices, for research and development or by light industrial businesses.

The planning application, submitted by Jamie Bairstow and Mark Bell earlier this year, said: “Should planning permission be approved, the Applicant will then market the site and seek to identify a suitable occupier for each unit, which will be made available on a leasehold basis.”

Industrial plans would create new jobs

It said that there were no other sites in Wibsey that would be suitable for this development - with space for 350 square metres of employment buildings and ample parking for these new businesses.

The application adds: “The site has accommodated a number of employment uses and quasi-employment uses in the past, to include a haulage depot, a civil engineering firm and a commercial window cleaner.

“Whilst the active use of the site may have ceased some years ago, the history of the use of the site is employment related.”

The application said the development would include improvements to Lower George Street between the site and Upper George Street, including resurfacing and drainage.

There would be 15 parking spaces, and an extra five disabled spaces.

Last year a similar application, for three 70 square metre units at the same site, was approved, but this development will replace those plans.

The application has now been approved by planning officers, whi said the planning system should support economic growth when it could.

A report said: “Planning decisions should help create the conditions in which businesses can invest, expand and adapt. This is particularly important where Britain can be a global leader in driving innovation , and in areas with high levels of productivity, which should be able to capitalise on their performance and potential.”

On the road improvements, officers said: “Ideally Lower George Street should be an adoptable standard highway, however it is difficult to improve to adoptable standards due to 3rd party land requirements. In view of this, and the fact that the existing substandard access serves a number of dwellings and served a builder’s yard in the past, it is considered that with the proposed highway improvements the access should be adequate to serve the proposed development and would also provide benefits for residents.”

The application is the latest in a number of successful applications for business units on vacant sites.