THE Environment Agency has urged Bradford Council to withdraw support for a new industrial park on stilts on a Keighley flood plain.

As part of a proposed expansion of Keighley Industrial Park, plans for nine commercial units off Royd Ings Avenue, next to the A629 and the River Aire, were submitted to Bradford Council last year.

Council planning officers recommended the scheme be refused due to flood risks.

But in March, the council's Regulatory and Appeals Committee voted to support the plans, although that approval would need Secretary of State support.

Committee members said the need for jobs in Keighley was an important enough reason to go against experts' recommendations, and claimed there were no other suitable sites in Keighley for such a development.

At the meeting Cllr Doreen Lee said: "We need jobs in Keighley and I hope there are special circumstances to overturn recommendations, because we need the jobs."

After that decision, planning officers were asked to work with applicant PH Holdings to devise conditions that would allow the scheme to go ahead.

Officers drew up conditions for the development, although the applicants have objected to some of these as being "unduly onerous."

Since then the Environment Agency has written to the council saying measures to reduce flood risk included in the scheme would be "ineffective" and called for the application to be rejected.

Measures suggested by the applicants to deal with flooding risk include constructing units on stilts, installing warning signs to let staff and visitors know the land was likely to flood, and creating mezzanine floors that could provide a "place of refuge" for staff in the case buildings flooded and evacuation was not possible.

In a 13-page letter to the council, the Environment Agency rejects many of the flood mitigation measures put forward. It says the development would go against policies blocking building on a flood plain, and could set a "harmful precedent."

The committee had said there was "no evidence of recent flooding on the site" but the Environment Agency point out the land flooded on April 3, just six days after the committee voted to support the plans.

Their letter adds: "We don't consider the use of stilts, voids and flood tubes to be appropriate floodplain compensation.

"We consider the only way to ensure there is no unacceptable increase in flood risk is to ensure this development doesn't go ahead."

The letter says if the committee did go against Environment Agency recommendations, an environmental permit would be required before any works go ahead. It adds: "On the basis of the information provided to-date, any such permit is likely to be refused."

The plans will now go before the committee for a second time next Thursday, (June 21) and members will be asked to rescind their decision. The committee meets in Bradford City Hall at 11am.