A DEVELOPER says it can no longer afford to make almost £100,000 of financial contributions to local services it agreed to as part of a new housing scheme.

Skipton Properties already has planning permission to build 28 houses on an area of land off Keighley Road, Harden.

As part of the planning approval, granted by Bradford Council in 2016, the company signed an agreement saying it would fund local services, including a primary school and park.

Known as a 106 agreement, it is normal procedure for housing developments, and helps provide the local infrastructure for the area around a development to cope with extra residents the housing would bring. It often includes money to local schools, parks, roads and public transport.

The 106 agreement for the Harden development would see Skipton Properties pay £46,708 to improve facilities at Cullingworth Primary School, £20,419 to make improvements to the St Ives Estate park and £31,893 to provide residents of the new homes with Metro travel cards, to reduce the amount of car journeys from the site.

Skipton Properties would also have to allocate six of the homes as affordable housing.

But the company has now told Bradford Council that having to pay these contributions would make the scheme “unviable”, and so have asked for the conditions of the planning permission to be altered, removing any contributions to the local community.

The Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee will decide whether to allow this at a meeting on Thursday.

Members will be told that a financial viability report has found that "because of the abnormal costs associated with developing the site it is not viable to provide the affordable housing units or the financial contributions required within the S106 agreement."

The company will still create a village green space as part of the development.

Harden Parish Council will be sending a representative to Thursday's meeting, and is questioning why this scheme was no longer viable.

Parish Council chairman Gerwyn Bryan said: "We want to know why this is all the sudden not viable. We want to know why, in two years since this was approved, and in a period house prices have increased in this part of the district, are they suddenly no longer to build this and provide this funding.

"The viability assessment should be made public. Our view is that this proposal should be deferred for further consultation. We recognise that development will take place here, but we have to make sure it is the best possible deal for Harden and within that process that everyone gets their due."

Pam Laking, chair of the Friends of St Ives, was disappointed to hear the park could lose out on over £20,000 of extra cash.

She said: "The estate needs money because of all the cutbacks. The Council is doing its best, but £20,419 would be an enormous amount to the estate that could be spent on things important to the community. We'd be extremely disappointed to miss out on this. The money could be used so many different ways, it could be used to refurbish playground equipment or fix up the toilets."

Skipton Properties Operations Director, Sarah Barraclough said: “An independent financial assessment has been conducted by one of Bradford Council’s nominated consultants. They have come to the conclusion that, due to the abnormal costs of developing this site, these payments cannot be afforded. As a company we always want to contribute to local schools, leisure facilities and create high quality affordable housing but in this case, the development would not be built if these costs are accounted for and as such we would not be able to provide much needed homes for the Bradford district.”

Last year Skipton Properties announced a pre-tax profit of £4.5 million.