A Labour councillor has been slammed after he submitted an application for a “ridiculous” four-metre-wide home.
Arshad Hussain, who heads the Bradford Area Planning Panel, submitted plans for a 13-foot-wide (four metres) home proposed to go between two other properties in the city.
He took the unusual three-storey home before a meeting of the Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel on Wednesday, February 14, which considered whether it could be built on Nab Wood Street.
But he was met with resistance, as members questioned how narrow the property would be compared to its neighbours.
He was told officers recommended the permission be refused for the “cramped and incongruous” development for five reasons.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that Mr Hussain was told by planning officers the construction had “pretty much nil chance” of being granted permission.
While attending the meeting, members of the Shipley panel said officers had recommended against the decision because the home’s garden would jut out onto the green belt.
They added the house would be a “cramped and incongruous form of development”, and there was no detail included in the application as to what impact it may have on local trees and biodiversity.
One of the officers, Lucy Fillingham, said that, if it was built, the property would obscure the views of its neighbours on either side.
She said: “The property would be very narrow – very different to the other houses on the street.
“The neighbours to either side would look out on a very tall, austere brick wall. The development potential for a new house on this site is pretty much nil.”
Mr Hussain told the panel he had commissioned surveys to look into the issues raised by the panel and asked its members to defer the decision until these were completed.
Another councillor in attendance, Marcus Dearden, said the application “shouldn’t be here” and added it was “ridiculous” and “impossible” to build a home on the site.
He said that since there were “so many reasons for refusal”, deferring the application would not help.
After hearing the concerns aired over the cramped home, the councillor chose to withdraw the plans.
