THE company wanting to build houses on a former research centre in Ilkley have reduced the number of homes they now want to build.

Bellway Homes Limited originally wanted to put 78 flats and houses on the site of the former International Wool Secretariat building, but a new planning application outlines only 70.

The company, which is based in Wetherby, has been in discussion with planning officials since submitting their original proposals in April.

But the two sides have been unable to agree and Bellway Homes has appealed to the Secretary of State for the Environment over the council's non-determination of the original planning application.

Campaigners for starter homes in Ilkley see the Valley Drive site as the ideal opportunity to provide cheaper properties.

But complications have arisen because planners would have to agree with the developers and private housing associations before so-called 'affordable homes' could be built.

A further complication has arisen because the site's official designation is employment land. It would need to be redesignated in the next Unitary Development Plan (UDP) - the planning blueprint for the next ten years.

But if planners do not find a suitable site for affordable homes in Ilkley or Keighley in the next couple of years, they risk losing a promised cash windfall of around £400,000 from the developers of the Ilkley College site.

Ilkley Parish Council planning chairman, Councillor Audrey Brand, said: "This is one of the prime sites for affordable housing if Bradford Council can put it aside in the UDP. We need these houses for people in Ilkley such as newlyweds."

The appeal by Bellway Homes is set for next February but the company will be hoping that the latest planning application is more acceptable to

officials. If that is the case it seems certain the appeal will be withdrawn.

But campaigners wanting to retain green belt land surrounding Ilkley fear that if the site is taken out of the town's stock of land for industrial development, another site of a similar size will have to be found by Bradford planners.

During the public hearing into the last UDP, local residents and Parish councillors successfully fought to

protect a green belt site at Coutances Way being designated as employment land. They would not want to see it being included in the latest UDP.