Idle Hill Reservoir: One of Yorkshire's most unusual housing plots to go under the hammer

The former Idle Hill Reservoir overlooks Shipley and the Saltaire World Heritage Site, and is one of the highest points in the Bradford area. But the underground service reservoir has been unused for almost 15 years. Since then there have been numerous plans to clear the reservoir and build housing atop the hill.

The most recent application, to build one large, five bed home in the reservoir void, was approved by Bradford Council in 2020. Despite this, the site still remains empty, and on March 21 the land will go to an online auction with a £275,000 guide price.

The listing, by Pugh auctions, describes the lot as an “exciting development opportunity” and says the reservoir materials on site have a value of around £50,000. The lot also includes the private access road, which leads to the plot from Westfield Lane in Wrose, between a number of other homes. The hill site has an extensive planning history, with proposals to demolish the reservoir and build a varying number of homes in its place.

These included an application to build eight houses on the site, which was refused by Bradford Council in 2018, and another for five homes, which was withdrawn in 2020 after highways officers raised concerns about access to the development.

The most recent application, for a Grand Designs style five bed home, was submitted by D Lovett. It said: “As the building no longer serves its original purpose and as the structure deteriorates it will be necessary to find an alternative use for this brownfield site. The building has no obvious future use and, as it is gradually deteriorating structurally.”

Planning officers said a single home would not lead to a huge rise in traffic around the site, and, approving it in 2020, said: “The proposed development is not considered to be harmful to the open and green character in which the site is located.”

They said although the single home was acceptable, there were “very significant constraints on the site which mean that a higher density of development is difficult to achieve without creating additional issues on which planning permission has been opposed in the past.”

The Pugh auction listing highlights the fact that these plans were approved. For more details about the auction click here.