A PLOT of land that includes an empty church has been sold at auction for £700,000.

The site, in Bradford Road, Sandbeds, went under the hammer at an online property auction held by Pugh.

The Church of Christ the King – situated between the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Bradford Road – has been empty since 2006, when it shut as part of a wave of Catholic Church closures.

Last year, a planning application to demolish the disused church and construct 13 houses on the site was submitted to Bradford Council by Chris Phillips.

Those plans – which include a mix of five, four, three and two-bed houses – were approved by planning officers last month.

Proposals to demolish the church and build a care home on the site were approved by Bradford Council in 2011, but the development never went ahead.

And subsequent plans for housing on the land had either been refused, or withdrawn by the developers, prior to the latest approval.

The auction listing highlighted that the site is a short distance from Bingley, and pointed out that planning approval for a residential development had recently been given.

The identity of the buyer has not been disclosed.