A KEIGHLEY pressure group has welcomed a government minister’s intervention to stop Bradford Council earmarking greenbelt land for housing.

BANDAG praised Shipley MP Philip Davies for persuading planning minister Gavin Barwell to press pause on the council’s core strategy development plan.

Mr Davies’s argument – that fields should not be churned up for housing until brownfield sites are exhausted – chimes with a long-standing campaign by BANDAG to protect Keighley’s countryside from development.

A Government planning inspector last month ratified Bradford Council’s controversial core plan, accepting that 42,100 new homes were needed in the district, and that parts of the green belt would need to be released to accommodate about a quarter of them.

But after lobbying by Mr Davies, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Gavin Barwell, ordered the council not to take any step in connection with the adoption of the plan, while issues raised by Mr Davies were considered further.

Mr Davies raised a number of issues, including the proposed release of the green belt, development of green belt before brownfield land is exhausted, and the appropriate location for development to alleviate housing need.

Mr Davies said: “I believe the work of the council and that of the inspector to be fundamentally flawed. The plan includes building houses on a large amount of land designated as green belt land.

“There will still be large numbers of empty properties across the district not being used, and swathes of brownfield land that clearly should be developed.”

A BANDAG spokesman said in drawing up its final version of the core strategy, Bradford Council had disregarded both national planning policy and its own original strategy.

She said: “All changes to the core strategy have disadvantaged the public and benefited developers.

“Acres of brownfield sites exist across Keighley, all five minutes from amenities and transport networks. If policy was followed our town would be regenerated.”

Members of Bradford Council’s executive had been poised to back the core strategy on Wednesday but instead reacted with anger, accusing Mr Davies of jeopardising the very fields he fought to protect.

Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe said: “This is frankly outrageous behaviour. By delaying the approved local plan, he has exposed his constituents and the rest of the district to the very real risk of unsuitable developments that would be sorely regretted for years to come.

“One MP with his own agenda has created a vacuum of uncertainty and a potential development free-for-all.”