Controversial plans for an electricity substation in a car park for the disabled have been shelved.
And two more spaces for disabled drivers have been provided in Keighley town centre. The proposals for the facility in the car park behind Keighley Town Hall met with strong resistance when they were unveiled in 2007.
The site can currently accommodate up to six vehicles. The substation would have reduced the number of available bays to three.
The car park is next to the Shopmobility centre and the substation proposal provoked 17 objection letters and a petition signed by 100 people. Keighley town councillors opposed the plans, recommending the substation be situated elsewhere.
Campaigners for disabled drivers in the town reacted angrily to the application, warning the district council might breach the Disability Discrimination Act.
Council planning officers said improvements to facilities within the town hall meant it required additional power.
Last December a meeting of Bradford’s regulatory and appeals committee agreed officers needed to consider alternative locations for the substation.
They also heard how two extra disabled person’s spaces had been created in nearby Cooke Street.
The meeting was held in Keighley instead of Bradford to make it more accessible for people with mobility problems. Now committee chairman Councillor Mike Ellis, has said the substation would not be built in the car park.
He also said the two additional Cooke Street spaces – put in place to compensate for the anticipated loss of bays – would remain.
He said Yorkshire Electricity had found another way of supplying power to the property.
“This is good news for people with disabilities,” he said.
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