The creation of a wide-ranging planning blueprint which could pave the way for a relief road east of Otley and increasing the size of Pool-in-Wharfedale by up to 40 per cent has moved a step closer to reality.

Leeds City Council has just received the long-awaited inspector's report on its Revised Draft Unitary Development Plan (UDP), which will take the district through to 2006.

The 2,000-page report, available for public scrutiny from March 22, considers more than 20,000 objections on 900 separate topics, which were submitted in writing or debated at the UDP inquiry in Leeds between 1994-96.

Councillor Keith Wakefield, chairman of Leeds' development services group and UDP panel, said: "This is a significant step in the UDP process which will allow us at long last to move forward with our planning strategy.

"I am pleased to see that while there are a number of changes proposed the inspector has, in the main, endorsed our approach including the total housing requirement of 28,500 homes up to the year 2006.''

Councillor Phil Coyne (Lab, Otley and Wharfedale) said he would be scrutinising the inspector's report to assess the impact of any development on Otley's infrastructure.

He said no houses should be built to the east of Otley until a relief road is completed.

Hazel Lee, vice-chairman of Pool Parish Council, said villagers were worried about the impact housing developments and future sand and gravel extraction at Midgley Farm - approved in the inspector's draft report - would have on the village's already very busy roads.

Among the controversial sites for possible housing are Rumplecroft at Otley and Swallow Drive, Whitegates at Arthington Lane and Church Close in Pool as well as The Sycamores at Bramhope.

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