PLANS for a £2.9 million canalside development have been approved.

Social housing provider Incommunities has been given the go-ahead to build 19 houses on a site it owns alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Crossflatts.

The Marley Court development will comprise a mixture of affordable homes for sale and rent, plus properties to be put on the open market.

Previously the site was home to three blocks of Incommunities flats, which were demolished in 2011.

Plans for the new scheme were submitted to Bradford Council earlier this year.

Approving the development, council planning officers said: “It is considered that the proposed dwellings have been well designed and will create a visually interesting development which relates well to the canal.”

Incommunities welcomed the decision and said work on the new homes should begin next spring.

The group plans to apply to Homes England for affordable housing grant support towards the cost of the project.

Rupert Pometsey, Incommunities’ director of development and growth, said: “We are delighted to have received planning approval for this exciting canalside development.

“The scheme will regenerate a cleared site which previously housed three blocks of Incommunities flats – built in 1968 ­– that had proved difficult to let and would have needed substantial investment.

“The mixed tenure development we propose will combine 16 three-bedroom houses and three two-bedroom homes. The well-designed homes will be available for affordable rent, open market sale and shared ownership.

“Following approval of the scheme this month, we will now begin the tendering process and look to start onsite in spring 2021.”

The site lies within the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Conservation Area, a short distance from the Grade II listed canal aqueduct over Morton Beck and just 70 metres from Lingcroft Wharfe – described as a “key unlisted building”.

Because of the significance of the site, the planning application included a heritage statement.

It praised the proposed development and said it would enhance the area.

The report said: “The canal was arguably the region’s most important piece of transport infrastructure and it influenced the wider development of the Bradford district and region.

“There is a clear opportunity to provide a higher-quality frontage to the canal that would enhance the experience of receptors and this is a significant heritage benefit that should be seized.

“The new dwellings positively address the canal and have a sensitive contemporary identity.”