AN ALLEGED breakdown in council communication meant information to help determine a Haworth planning application was not available when needed, according to a pair of councillors.

Cllr Barry Thorne and Cllr Rebecca Poulsen said a proposal to raise a property’s roof pitch in Mill Hill was passed on the understanding the development would largely be screened by trees.

However, Cllr Thorne said neither he nor members of Keighley & Shipley Area Planning Panel had been made aware the applicant had previously applied to cut “seven or eight” of these trees down.

Cllr Thorne, who is chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council’s planning committee, said: “It would have been a different story if we’d known about the application to cut down the trees.

“I feel misled, and I’ve asked for an investigation into the whole process.

“As a parish council, we are helpful and realistic when it comes to dealing with Bradford. We’re not all ‘yah boo, sucks to you’. This has probably been more of a cock-up than a conspiracy, but it does mean in future we’re going to be doubly careful when dealing with planning officers.”

A Bradford Council spokesman responded: “We have no legal requirement to give notice of applications for works to trees in conservation areas to parish councils or neighbours.”

The application relates to Brockleigh in Mill Hill, near the bottom of Butt Lane. The applicant had asked for an increase to a roof pitch to form first floor extensions.

Cllr Poulsen said she and Cllr Thorne attended the planning panel where the application was debated and voted on.

“I was there to speak on behalf of residents concerned about the size of the development and issues of overlooking,” she said.

“The planning panel members asked the planning officer about the trees, and were told they were in a conservation area and permission would be needed to remove them.

“The panel was reassured the trees were there and would shield the property, and it voted to approve the application. Two weeks ago, residents rang me and Cllr Thorne to say six of the trees were being cut down.”

When she followed up the calls, Cllr Poulsen learned the applicant had gone through the proper channels and applied to have the trees felled.

“The application for the felling had been made before the planning panel meeting, but no one at that meeting seemed to have been aware of it,” she said. “It’s not very acceptable. The planning panel deserves to have the full facts of any application.”