PLANS to open a large retail space in a warehouse could harm businesses in Lidget Green and Girlington, planners fear.

An application to turn a section of Maharaja Textiles on Cemetery Road into a 930 square metre retail outlet will go before a planning panel on Wednesday.

Submitted by Maharaja Textiles Ltd, the plan would see the rear of the large warehouse, along Greenside Lane, converted.

But a report to members of Bradford Council’s Bradford Area Planning Panel recommends the plan be refused.

Planning officers raise concerns that the building is an out-of-centre location – when planning policy is to encourage retail to remain in city, town or village centres.

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In this case they argue that this large retail unit would harm businesses in the centres of Lidget Green and Girlington.

The report says: “In this location, the use would potentially increase footfall away from the designated local centres and have an adverse impact on the vitality and viability of these.”

It suggests that without an assessment from developers that would prove the business wouldn’t harm these centres, the application should be refused.

The panel will meet in City Hall at 10am on Wednesday.