The first phase of a £45 million development of more than 700 apartments looks set to be approved next week.

Bradford planners are recommending that the Aspire Citygate scheme on the former site of the Reyner House parade at the bottom of Manchester Road be approved.

It follows outline permission which is already in place. The Citygate scheme was resurrected by York-based Skelwith Group after the previous developer Asquith Properties hit financial difficulties. The original plans included a 38-storey tower, but this aspect was scrapped last year.

The first phase of detailed plans, which features a six-storey block of 75 apartments with car parking, will be considered by Bradford Council’s planning panel on Thursday.

Some revisions have been made after planning officers at the Council were concerned about the predominance of one-bedroom apartments within the project.

In a report to the committee, officers state: “Consequently, after prolonged negotiations, the scheme has been revised to remove the studio units and ‘crashpads’, the smaller units.”

It goes on to say: “Officers had taken the view that the original submission and ratio of one to two-bed units was inappropriate, in terms of the likely mix of residents and type of development and community this would provide.

“A dominance of one-bed units was not seen as desirable, creating a transient population that would add little to the existing neighbourhood and not necessarily meeting the housing needs of the area.

“Subsequently, the applicant, after much persuasion, revised the mix of units with the proportion of units now being 59 per cent one-bed and 41 per cent two-bed units. This reserved matters application was originally submitted as 83 per cent one-bed units and 17 per cent 2-bed units.”

The application also includes 28 parking spaces.

The development has been designed to “hark back to the industrial mills and heritage of Bradford”, but officers did not consider the original proposals of mainly brick elevations was appropriate as there are very few traditional brick mills in Bradford.

“Following lengthy discussion on this issue, the principal material has been changed to natural stone, with elements of brick and render to the rest of the building,” the report adds.

A spokesman for the Skelwith Group said: “We have been working with Bradford City Council for a number of months to ensure that our plans bring forward a scheme that delivers as many benefits to the city as possible. We are pleased with the officers’ positive recommendation and are keen to get on site so that we can bring affordable city centre living back to Bradford. As with all our schemes, we will use local labour and suppliers wherever possible, allowing us to further support the local economy.”

The overall scheme is for 705 apartments in total split into six blocks. The further blocks will require separate detailed planning permission.

The planning panel meeting takes place on Thursday, April 19, at 9.45am, at City Hall, Bradford.