PLANS to build houses on a field in Keighley have been approved, despite objections.

Members of Bradford Council’s Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel heard a number of objectors speak out against the proposals for six homes on a site off Braithwaite Road.

The application, by executors of J Baxendall (Deceased), was for land that is a green field, but not greenbelt.

Keighley town councillor Martin Walker spoke against the plans, telling the panel that on a recent visit to the site he saw red admiral butterflies, a curlew and a goldfinch, adding: “This is nature at its best. It is not appropriate to build on it.”

But officers said the site was not protected, and that there was a shortage of housing sites across the district.