PLANS for an extra access road to the proposed new Silsden primary school have received a huge number of protests.

More than 150 objections have been submitted to Bradford Council over the proposed road to connect busy Bolton Road with the Hawber Cote area.

Silsden Town Council has joined residents objecting “in the strongest possible terms” to the road, which would also connect the main road to fields earmarked for up to 500 houses.

Town and district councillor Adrian Naylor has highlighted potential traffic dangers on a stretch of Bolton Road that already has a bend and two junctions, and will have further complications after a planned estate of 62 new houses is built across the road.

The controversy centres on plans for the road submitted earlier this year. It was understood to be on behalf of a consortium of landowners who hope eventually to gain planning permission for houses on fields near the new Silsden Primary School campus which has been approved.

Under the initial application, the road would have only run to Hawber Cote, but at the council’s request surveyors prepared a new plan extending the road further to Hawber Cote Lane to connect with the school entrance.

The original plan had already attracted dozens of objections from local people, and the revised version prompted a flurry of further protests on the council’s planning website.

Silsden Town Council has described the application as “totally unacceptable”, particularly because of potentially damaging effects on the existing school design, and called for a public meeting to properly discuss concerns.

The councillors also said the new junction on Bolton Road would significantly alter sightlines, because it would be near a bus shelter due to be built as a condition of permission for 62 houses being built on the opposite side at Townhead.

Cllr Naylor said there would eventually be three access roads – including the existing Brown Bank Lane – emerging into fast-flowing traffic on Bolton Road near a bend.

He said: “This will be an access road for 400 or 500 cars. It will increase the amount of traffic coming out of the Banklands area of Silsden, and will do nothing to tackle congestion.

“Regardless of this road, good or bad, the council needs to do a proper traffic survey about the effects of both planning applications.”

Cllr Naylor said the proximity of two separate projects showed the need for a masterplan to look at Silsden’s future development in its entirety, rather than discussing each project one at a time.

He added: “As I warned, we are ending up with a lot of roads close together with little visibility and hundreds of cars using them.”