BRADFORD city centre is becoming overloaded with low cost flats, and planners will no longer push for city apartment schemes to include affordable housing. A planning meeting this week heard that the centre already had a large amount of cheap flats - with some going to market for as cheap as £5,000. And one developer said these low cost flats were not painting Bradford in a good light. Bradford Council usually requires any major housing development to include an amount of affordable housing - making it easier for people who cannot afford market housing to find a home. Often developers have to show that 20 per cent of housing will be affordable to get planning permission.
PLANS for a new retail development in the heart of Keighley have been approved - and a new Aldi at the heart of the development is due to open next year. This morning members of Bradford Council s Regulatory and Appeals approved the discount retailer s plans to transform the long empty Alexandra Works site, off East Parade. The development will include a new Aldi store, another large retail store, a drive thru coffee shop and three smaller shops. The plans first went before the Committee in November, but members deferred their decision, and asked Aldi to go back to the drawing board after raising concerns about the scheme s design and layout.