THE site of a Caravan sales business that shut last year can now be used by a car dealership after a decision by planning officers.

Long standing business Dickinson Caravans on Canal Road, between Shipley and Bradford, shut its doors last year having operated in the District since the 1970s.

After a year of the site remaining empty, it was announced that D M Keith ltd - which owns the adjacent Skoda dealership, planned to expand onto the site.

A planning application to change the use to a used car dealership was submitted to Bradford Council, and that application has now been approved.

The business intends to install temporary buildings on the site - including a sales building, valet bay building and photo bay building, saying they want to see how viable the site is as a dealership before it invests in permanent buildings.

Existing buildings on the site would be demolished.

The plans also include the demolition of a boundary wall and fence to the site to make way for a road widening project.

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The Canal Road Corridor scheme is a multi million pound project that will see a large stretch of Canal Road widened and made the main route for cars and HGVs between Shipley and Bradford.

Manningham Lane will be altered to boost public transport, walking and cycling, with most motor traffic between Shipley and Bradford being instead diverted to the Canal Road Corridor.

Due to this expected road widening project, the front boundary wall of the ex caravan sales site facing Canal Road will be demolished and re-built 2.5 metres back.

The application said around 108 used car bays would be created on the site, and the expansion would create six full time jobs.

Nobody had objected to the planning application.

The Canal Road Corridor is already home to numerous car dealerships.

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Approving the scheme, officers said: "The siting of cars on the site would also not be harmful to visual amenity. Canal Road is to be widened and this will see the existing stone wall with unsightly palisade fence on top demolished and replaced by a 1.8m high paladin fence along the new edge of the site with a metal sliding gate protecting the entrance outside of operating hours.

"This represents a visual improvement to the site. Within the site lighting columns will illuminate the site in hours of darkness and this will not be harmful to visual amenity subject to a condition requiring submission of details of these lighting columns being submitted for approval.

"Three temporary structures are proposed within the site. The buildings are temporary in nature to allow the viability of the site to be assessed before providing more permanent structures.

"The site is located within Flood Zone 2 which is land that is more vulnerable to flooding. The site is however already used for the display and sale of caravans which is similar to the proposed use as used car dealership."

One condition of the application is that the temporary buildings be removed from the site within five years, unless the company applies for an extension of time.