Great Pasture Lane: 100 homes on paper, potentially 300 or more100 homes on paper, potentially 300+ Comments close 5pm Mon 30 Nov 2026
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Burley in Wharfedale · Bradford Local Plan consultation

Green Belt by the Wharfe: 100 homes on paper, potentially 300 or more

Fields off Great Pasture Lane, north of the A65 and stretching towards the river, appear in Bradford's draft Local Plan as housing site H119. To build there, the council would take the land out of the Green Belt. No other new housing site is proposed for Burley, and comments made now go to an independent Inspector.

Mon30 Nov5pm

That is the final moment to comment on the plan. Bradford will not consider anything sent afterwards.

Start my response Read the council's site entry
Outline drawn from the map data the council publishes with the plan. The official boundary is on Bradford's policies map.
37days until comments close, at 5pm on Monday 30 November.
100homes as a minimum, across 18.26 hectares of Green Belt
1extra access onto the A65, required by the council's site entry
The site at a glance

Great Pasture Lane: what stands to be lost?

Burley in Wharfedale is expected to accommodate around 577 homes over the plan period. The council's draft Local Plan identifies Great Pasture Lane as a housing allocation for a minimum of 100 homes, on land that is currently Green Belt.

The plan sets a minimum of 100 homes. But it also sets a density of 35 homes per hectare, and the site is 18.26 hectares. Applied across the whole site, that would be more than 600 homes. Local councillor Bob Felstead has suggested that even half that figure would not be unreasonable to expect. The council's site entry says new housing should be located on the east side of the site.

The implications go beyond the number of houses. Development here would add to the demands on services residents already rely on: school places, GP appointments, roads, parking and local transport.

Removing this land from the Green Belt would also remove an important layer of protection from countryside that cannot be recreated once it is built over, with consequences for wildlife, landscape and the character of the village.

An allocation does not grant planning permission, and a developer would still have to apply. But it establishes the principle that housing is appropriate here, which makes the location much harder to challenge once the plan is adopted.

The question is not just how many homes Burley should take. It is whether the village has the infrastructure to support this scale of development, and whether the permanent loss of this countryside is a price the community should be expected to pay.

A broad green field with a wire fence in the foreground and the moor on the skyline under a cloudy sky
View across the proposed site from the river path towards the moor. (Photo: Burley residents)
Reference
H119, Great Pasture Lane
Minimum homes
100
Gross area
18.26 hectares
Current status
Greenfield, in the Green Belt
Road access
New access from the A65
Expected delivery
2030 to 2035

Taken from site entry H119, Policy BU1 and Table BU1.1 of the Publication Draft.

Before the deadline

Making a response count

  1. 1Point to H119

    Your comment should name Great Pasture Lane, H119, which sits in the Burley section of the plan.

  2. 2Say what fails

    Explain, in your own way, which soundness question the site does not satisfy. A unique response is worth more than a copied one.

  3. 3Ask for an outcome

    Request removal, or a smaller site released only once the roads, school places and drainage are dealt with.

  4. 4Keep your voice

    If you would like to speak at the examination hearings, say so. Anyone asking for a change can.

OnlineUse the council's comment form on bradford.oc2.uk, which asks you to register.
EmailSend it to planning.policy@bradford.gov.uk. The response builder on this page sets that up for you.
PostLocal Plan Team, City of Bradford MDC, 4th Floor, Britannia House, Bradford BD1 1HX, arriving before the deadline.

Responses without a name and address are not accepted. The council's Local Plan team answers questions on 01274 434605, and is running online information sessions from 5pm to 6pm on 2, 12 and 18 November, which you can book through the email address above.

Grounds for objection

Where the case for H119 falls short

An Inspector checks the plan against four questions. Has it been positively prepared? Is it justified? Will it be effective? Does it follow national policy? Each point here names the question it raises.

Question: justified?

Once judged unsuitable

Leather Bank, a narrow tree-lined lane covered in fallen leaves, beside the site
Leather Bank, the old lane running beside the site. (Stephen Craven / CC BY-SA 2.0)
01
Judged unsuitable beforein Bradford's earlier assessment of housing land, as site BU/015

Bradford's own earlier assessment of housing land in Burley listed Great Pasture Lane (ref BU/015) among "sites unsuitable for residential development". It said the land "is not attached to the edge of the urban area and thus is not considered suitable without a major change to the green belt boundary in this location". That assessment covered a smaller 1.74 hectare parcel; the allocation now proposed is 18.26 hectares.

Its appearance as a proposed allocation raises serious questions about what has changed and what evidence now justifies the reversal. The council should explain why land previously considered unsuitable is now being put forward, and show that it is the most appropriate option against reasonable alternatives.

Question to putWhat has changed since this land was judged unsuitable, and what evidence shows it is now the most appropriate option for Burley?
Question: effective?

A fresh junction onto the A65

The A65 at the western end of the Burley bypass, a wide road with a lorry and a road sign for Skipton
The A65 where the Burley bypass ends to the west. (Stephen Craven / CC BY-SA 2.0)
02
A new accessis needed from the A65, according to the site entry

Access to the site would have to be created from the A65, the council's site entry says. The same road serves Ilkley, where 593 homes are planned on new sites, and Addingham, with 208, as well as the 577 or so expected in Burley. Yet the council's transport mitigation is aimed at major economic growth locations and strategic junctions, and none of the junctions on the A65 through Wharfedale is singled out in its Transport Assessment.

Question to putHas the A65 through Burley been modelled with every Wharfedale site added together, and where would a new access join it safely?
Question: national policy?

Taking Green Belt from the valley floor

Two curlews with long curved bills feeding in short grass
Curlews feeding on the site. (Photo: Burley residents)
03
1.17%of Bradford district's Green Belt is released for housing

National policy permits Green Belt boundaries to move only in exceptional circumstances, with as little harm as possible, and this site forms part of the 1.17% share of Bradford's Green Belt that the plan releases for housing. The site entry itself treats the land with care. It wants any housing kept to the east, the effect on views to and from the National Landscape minimised, and the drystone walls and hedgerows retained.

Question to putWhat did the Green Belt and landscape assessments find about harm here, and why is this the least harmful choice for Burley?
Question: effective?

Water and wildlife at the river edge

Greenholme weir on the River Wharfe, water pouring over a long stone weir with woodland behind
Greenholme weir, a short way north of the site. (Stephen Craven / CC BY-SA 2.0)
04
Flood Zone 2covers ground in the north east of the site

In the north east of the site there is Flood Zone 2, and the washlands habitat network runs through that corner. The council also records the land as Zone B for the South Pennine Moors Special Protection Area, as a bat alert area, and as bordering protected trees to the east. Residents have photographed curlews feeding on the site, and the site entry says proposals must assess impacts on foraging habitat used by the SPA's qualifying species. The surveys that would test these things are only required once someone applies for planning permission.

Question to putWhat flood and ecological evidence supports allocating this land now, and which drainage improvements are funded, and when?
Straight from the site entry

The council's own notes on H119

Bradford's entry for the site lists these requirements and constraints. Each line on the right is quoted word for word from the Publication Draft.

A pale barn owl in flight low over long grass, with trees behind
A barn owl hunting over the site. (Photo: Burley residents)
  • A new site access would be required from the A65.Highways
  • The development should be designed to take into account areas of Flood Zone 2 to the northeast of the site.Flood risk
  • The site boundary should take account of the washlands habitat network in the north east corner of the site. The site is also located within a bat alert area.Ecology
  • The site boundary should take account of the TPO buffer to the east of the site.Trees
  • Development should be located in the east of the site … Minimise the influence of development in views to and from the AONB.Landscape
  • The site is partially located within a 250m buffer of a former landfill site.Ground
  • Site is within/partially within a Mineral Safeguarding Area (MSA) for Sand and Gravel.Minerals

Noticed bats, otters, owls or other wildlife near the site? Log the sighting with West Yorkshire Ecology, the county's records centre. Ecologists draw on those records when they assess land for development.

The council's position

Why Bradford says it needs these homes

By 2043 the district has to provide at least 33,669 homes, around 70% of them in the city, and the council argues brownfield land cannot cover that alone. Its supply clears the target by only about 192 homes. If one site is taken out, an Inspector is likely to look for another to replace it.

For Burley, Policy BU1 describes "a growth area to the north for sport facilities, recreation and housing uses". It also says further development outside the settlement boundary to the west and east "should be avoided to preserve the settlement setting and character". With most of Burley's expected homes already being built, a response asking for H119 to be removed or reduced on the evidence will carry more weight than one rejecting the plan outright.

The wider valley

One main road, three growing places

Burley, Ilkley and Addingham all rely on the A65, and all three are taking new homes in this plan. Great Pasture Lane would add a new junction to that road.

The size of each circle reflects the number of homes.

Your response

Answer a few questions and get a draft to edit

The builder turns your answers into a first draft written in the first person. Edit it as much as you like, then send it from your own email. Nothing reaches the council unless you send it.

1Who you are

Bradford only accepts responses that give a name and address.

2What concerns you

Pick the points you care about most. A focused response is often stronger than one that covers everything.

3Your own knowledge

Optional. A detail only a local person would know is often the most persuasive part of a response.

0 / 800
4The outcome you want
Private by design. The draft is assembled on your own device. What you type stays in this browser tab and is never saved by this site. We keep an anonymous tally of which boxes get ticked. Bear in mind that the council publishes names alongside the comments it receives.

Your draft will show here

Fill in the four steps and press Prepare my response. Because the draft is built from your own answers, each one comes out different.

Source documents

Read it for yourself

The site entry is the place to begin. Every link below goes to the council's own portal or reports and opens separately.

Site entryH119: Great Pasture Lane, BurleyBoundary, capacity and every requirement the council attaches to the siteGo to the council portal ↗ Settlement policyPolicy BU1: Burley in WharfedaleThe village's share of growthView ↗ Whole planThe Publication DraftIncludes the council's own comment formView ↗ Evidence baseSupporting documentsIncluding transport, Green Belt and site assessmentsView ↗ Evidence baseIntegrated AppraisalWhere the sustainability appraisal sitsView ↗ DecisionExecutive report, 15 October 2026The council's reasoning for the plan (PDF)View ↗ MappingInteractive policies mapThe authoritative site outlinesView ↗
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About this page

Residents in Burley in Wharfedale put this page together. It is independent of Bradford Council. The figures are drawn from the council's documents and from local reporting, all listed below, and any error you point out will be put right.