A decision to give Bradford City the green light for its new £1.5million football academy has been postponed by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Mr Prescott's Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions was due to rule on the club's application to build the academy on green belt land at Elm Tree Farm, Apperley Bridge, by early November. But it has now deferred the decision indefinitely.

Bradford councillors approved the Bantams' plans to develop the land at a meeting of Bradford Area Planning Panel in August but the application then had to be referred to the DETR because it involved building on green belt.

The decision to defer has caused concern among local resident groups who are campaigning against the development, fearing it will ruin the landscape and destroy wildlife havens.

Joan Brown, of Apperley Bridge Development Residents Association, said the group had submitted a 20-page document opposing the plans.

She said: "We don't know the reason for the delay, we just want to know what's happening.

"At the moment the land is totally flooded - I don't know why they should be allowed to build on a flood plain anyway. The application seem to fly in the face of recent appeals that we should protect our flood plains."

A spokesman for the DETR said: "The DETR normally has 21 days to consider the application. In this case we have asked to extend that amount of time. There are obviously issues that we feel need to be looked into more carefully."

City's managing director Shaun Harvey said: "This is not unusual in this type of application.

"We are still hopeful that once they have had time to consider the information they have got, the decision will go in our favour.

"We haven't been told when to expect a decision but we hope that we will be told the decision within the next 28 days."

A spokesman for Bradford Council also confirmed that it had been made aware of the decision to delay.