Campaigners battling to prevent greenfield land being swallowed up by developers today urged the public to help them compile the biggest survey ever held of derelict sites in the Bradford district.

Heaton Township Association, backed by other protest groups, is spearheading a co-ordinated fight to prevent Bradford Council granting planning permission for more building on swathes of picturesque countryside.

As reported in last week’s Telegraph & Argus, the Council has admitted that the last full survey of vacant land was carried out more than a decade ago and it has no up-to-date record of what dormant brownfield sites are available for potential redevelopment.

Now campaigners are urging people to let them know about any derelict buildings and disused sites in their neighbourhoods so they can put together a “comprehensive” map of the district which will be presented to the authority.

Elizabeth Hellmich, chairman of Heaton Township Association said: “We know from councillors we have spoken to that they don’t know where the areas of derelict land are.

“So we are looking for any areas that could be re-used. Obviously there are some private buildings with owners and the Council has not got the money for Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) but there will be other sites where something could be done.

She added: “This could be useful to the Council and to businesses because it will give them an idea of which areas could be regenerated.”

As previously reported in the T&A, Government-funded surveys were carried out every four years until 1999, when the last survey revealed the total area of dereliction in the district amounted to 0.7sq miles, made up of 145 separate sites.

Campaigners fear the number of derelict sites in reality is far greater and say disused land and crumbling buildings need to be regenerated before the Council decides to allow building on greenfield land.

Derelict and disused buildings ripe for development could include the Conditioning House, a grade II listed building in Canal Road, which was once the UK’s leading centre for testing wool and had a few years ago been earmarked for regeneration.

Other sites laying empty include the badly vandalised Wapping First School in Wapping Road and homes off Claremont Street, Bradford.

They are among 13,720 unused properties identified by the Government’s Communities and Local Government Office in a report last month.

Baildon residents against a £25 million hi-tech business park off Otley Road – given planning permission last month – have also criticised the Council for allowing it to be built on fields while hundreds of thousands of square feet of former factories remain empty.

They include more than 113,000 sq ft of the old Havells Sylvania lighting factory, the former British Mohair Spinners site, and other vacant buildings in Otley Road, Dockfield Road and the surrounding area.

Terry Brown, chairman of Greenhill Action Group, which is fighting plans to build 475 homes on the canal side at Micklethwaite, said: “A survey will certainly be helpful to identify the land which is not being used.

“I’m sure there are plenty of brownfield sites and people regularly make comments about them.”

Mrs Hellmich said that areas ripe for regenerating derelict areas would also enhance the district’s reputation.

She said: “Everyone that you talk to is fed up of the way Bradford looks, particularly the older generation, who know what Bradford used to look like.

“Now you go to other places and people look at you with disdain when you tell them where you come from. It shouldn’t be like that.”

Councillor David Heseltine, deputy chairman of Bradford Council’s regeneration and economy overview and scrutiny committee which has received a report on the derelict land issue, said: “It does seem to be making a mockery of the situation that the brownfield land is laying fallow and we are raping and pillaging our beautiful green fields.

“It just seems that developers want the easy-to-develop sites and leave the rest.

“Identifying suitable pre-developed land that is under or unused is essential to building enough homes for Bradford without affecting too much the things that make Bradford a nice place to live – our green fields.

“We can’t just go on concreting over every last open and green area in our communities.”

Councillor John Cole (Lib Dem, Baildon), also a member of the scrutiny committee, described plans to map the district’s derelict sites as a “good idea”.

“If more resources were available, we would like to pick this up as a Council but, in the meantime, if the general public were prepared to do some of the leg work, that would be hugely helpful. Whatever people can do to assist will be a bonus.”

Coun Heseltine said developers needed to be given more incentives to build on previously developed land.

He said it was easier to build on large, undeveloped sites as opposed to derelict sites, which often need expensive land remediation and decontamination before work can start.

Better incentives could be brought in through the Government’s proposed localism legislation, part of which is expected to give local communities more say in planning decisions.

Coun Heseltine said: “It is a question to Government about how we can make it easier to develop derelict land.

“These things need re addressing so that pre-developed land is on an equal footing with non-developed land, to make it more attractive to developers.”