A COUNCILLOR has voiced concerns that Silsden could be left without enough commercial buildings.

Councillor Rebecca Whitaker was speaking out against an application to convert a workshop in the town centre, occupied by A & A Lampkin, into six homes.

The planning application was approved by members of Bradford Council’s Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel, where members were told the company was winding down, and likely to close soon due to a fall in business.

The company had proposed turning the workshop, on Greengate, into three houses, and building three new houses next to it.

There had been objections that the homes would lead to an increase in traffic on the unadopted road. But officers pointed out that if a new business were to move into the workshop it could lead to much more traffic than the road currently experienced.

Cllr Whitaker said: “Silsden is a growing town. If we start converting every employment building we might end up ten years down the line and realise there aren’t any available for new businesses because we’ve changed them all to housing.”

Members voted to approve the plans on the condition the junction with Skipton Road is made safer through a traffic regulation order.