NEW evidence from worried householders has forced planners to think again about a contentious building scheme for Horsforth Social Club.

Leeds Plans Panel (West) agreed to delay making a decision on the proposal after hearing from two residents that figures given for car parking levels at the club were "quite inaccurate".

Councillors had been set to approve two plans which would have seen part of the Hall Lane club demolished and three four-bedroom houses built on the new space and part of the existing parking area.

Principal planning officer Martin Sellens told the meeting the scheme would reduce the number of parking bays to 16, but that the club had assured him that would be enough to cater for guests and staff.

He said: "The information we have from the club leads us to believe that there is space on here for three houses, and it is a brownfield site."

But Hall Park Avenue resident Caroline Greenwood then threw a major spanner in the works by disputing the point and claiming residents had been carrying out their own survey of parking at the club.

She said: "We've no objection to the construction of the houses, the main objections are the loss of car parking spaces and likely resultant increase in on-street parking.

"Reducing the car parking spaces would obviously lead to more on-street parking outside my and my neighbours houses, on what are already very busy roads."

Mrs Greenwood said the other aspect of the plans really worrying residents was the effect the creation of the new houses would have on anti-social behaviour in the area.

She said: "We already have problems with gangs of youths gathering on the public footpath which runs down the side of this site at all times of the night. We've had damage done to property, noise nuisance and attempted burglaries."

Hall Lane resident Michael Wynne-Jones echoed those concerns, and said he had sent the panel a written record of actual car park usage last September.

He said: "The figures which have been given in the application are quite inaccurate. The actual number of parking spaces in that car park, which is frequently full with over-spill, is more than 50.

"It is common on busy evenings, and especially on Fridays, Saturdays and Bank Holidays, for the car park to be full and for car parking to extend 100 or more yards along the north side of Hall Lane."

Mr Sellens said planners had no choice but to re-examine the scheme.

He said: "In light of the information we have just received all I can ask is for the Panel to defer the application to allow us to look further at these figures, because there are clear discrepancies. This proposal is only acceptable, in my mind, if we felt the car park was adequate to cope with most operations of the club."

The panel agreed to defer making a decision. But Councillor Brian Jennings warned that was not the only issue concerning him.

He said: "I look at these three houses, supposedly for families but with no gardens, in this pocket handkerchief of land and despair."