Planning permission is being sought for the completion of a 23-acre recycling park near the city centre.

If approved, the £10m site will be developed over the next five years and create around 50 jobs.

The scheme is the brainchild of Bradford demolition and haulage entrepreneur Thomas Crompton, whose group of companies is based in Neville Road, Bowling.

The planned recycling park will handle around 150,000 tonnes of non-toxic waste materials a year.

Mr Crompton said it will be one of the largest sites of its kind in England and play a major part in reducing landfill waste.

He said: “With increasing pressure on local authorities to avoid landfill and increasing charges for burying waste in the ground this facility will help local authorities to reduce costs and meet recycling targets.”

About 500 lorries a week are expected to roll in when the plant is completed, carrying 10,000 tonnes of material.

The development, by Thomas Crompton Developments Ltd, is on a site between Neville Road and Bowling Back Lane. It was originally the base of Bowling Iron Works, which opened in 1778.

The first phase of the state-of-the-art complex opened in June to handle non-hazardous building waste, which is sorted and stored for re-use.

The second phase, for which planning permission is being sought, will handle municipal waste and will include three auto-cleansers.

Once metals and other recyclable materials have been removed, the remainder will be turned into blocks which can be sold as fuel to power stations.

Said Mr Crompton: “It will only accept non-hazardous waste, and will have a composting area.

“The design is very sympathetic and I’ve instructed a landscape architect to create a woodland area which will even have its own pond, filled with rainwater, and a picnic area for the workers so that they can enjoy the woodland.”

Much of the recycling operation will be housed in a large building measuring 80m by 50m and it will take up to five years to become fully operational.

Mr Crompton’s plans include extensive landscaping that will eventually screen the building from view. Planning consultants have researched tree types to ensure those planted will thrive in the locality.

Preparatory work has also included a full traffic impact survey and a check on the ecological impact of the development on wildlife and to check for any protected species.

The background work has delayed the submission of the planing application by six months.