A decision by planning officers could mean a long empty area of land can be used for parking for a neighbouring hospital.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust applied to Bradford Council to lawfully use a large plot of land at Horton Park Avenue as a car park.
The fenced off, empty plot of land is a short distance from St Luke’s Hospital.
The Trust says although the site has not been used for years, it had been used in the past as a car park, and the hope is this use can now continue.
Planners at Bradford Council have now agreed with this, and have awarded a “certificate of lawfulness” for the land to re-open for parking.
The application by the Trust said: “The Site was granted a temporary (two years) planning permission in February 2007 for use as a car park. Following this, in March 2009, a planning application was granted by Bradford Council for the retention of the car park as a permanent use.
“Although the car park has not been actively used for a number of years and more recently the surfacing removed, in land use terms, it is considered that the lawful use of this Site continues to be a car park.
“The Trust stopped using the car park around 10 years ago as at this point it was not required and it was not deemed to be viable to continue to pay the costs of CCTV, security, lighting and maintenance when it was not required, but it has been retained in the interim to allow for re-use should the Trust expand its service provision.
“Based upon there being no intervening use since the land was in active use it is evident that the use has not been abandoned.”
Planning officers acknowledged that the site still falls into the car park use in planning terms. They said: “Aerial photos from 2011 through to 2020 show the car park still laid out, albeit it appears to no longer be in use and the later photos show some signs of deterioration in the condition of the car park area.
“In 2021 the car park appears to have been stripped back and the formal layout is no longer evident on this photo or the one taken in 2022. The photos do however not indicate that any alternative use commenced on the land or that the use of the site as a car park would be compromised.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted the Trust for more details of when the car park might re-open, but has yet to receive a response.
