A wrangle over a charity’s plans to build “homes with support” for over 60s on a former Ilkley school site is set to go on – more than six months after the scheme was submitted to planners.

Methodist Homes for the Aged (MHA) hopes to build the 56-apartment Housing With Care development on the former Ilkley Middle School site, on Valley Drive.

The complex would provide housing specifically for over-60s who have care and support needs, and potential purchasers or leaseholders would be assessed by the charity before they were classed as qualifying for an apartments.

The charity submitted its scheme for the Bradford Council-owned land to the council’s planning department in July.

But the scheme has yet to be determined by planners, amid negotiations with the applicant, and Bradford Council cannot yet confirm if the plan will go before Keighley area planning bosses in January.

Major development officer for Bradford Council, John Eyles, said: “Planning officers are still negotiating details of the planning application with the applicants. The application will then be debated by the Keighley Area Planning Panel.

“The panel next meets on January 21 and the former Middle School site could be on that agenda.”

The Middle School site has been suggested for several years as a possible site for affordable homes for local people who cannot afford high house prices in the locality – including young people and older members of the community who need smaller homes.

There have also been calls, however, to leave the land as it is until the debate over rebuilding or creating additional buildings for Ilkley Grammar School has been resolved.

Ilkley Middle School itself closed under the re-organisation of Bradford District schools to a two-tier system, around a decade ago. The site continued to be used to house a section of Ilkley Grammar School’s expanded student population until the school’s new block was built on the main Cowpasture Road site.

With demand for school places soaring, however, and the grammar school facing opposition from some quarters for its proposed rebuild on fields on the other side of Wheatley Lane (see below), there have been calls to leave the Middle School site empty.

One of the suggestions for the future of Ilkley Grammar, using its share of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding, was to build a centre to house some of the grammar schools students – such as its sixth form – on the Valley Drive land.

MHA withdrew a previous planning application to develop the Middle School site earlier this year.

Ilkley Parish Council has opposed the second plan, citing the need for the land to remain free until education issues are resolved as one of its key concerns.

The parish council also had concerns about insufficient parking spaces for residents as well as the design and density of the complex.

And there has been speculation that the land could be a site for the new Coronation Community Hospital.

The Middle School land has previously been the subject of unsuccessful planning applications for housing, which included affordable homes.

If it gains planning permission for the Housing With Care scheme, MHA plans to make apartments available on a long leasehold of 125 years, with an additional ground rent.

Potential residents would be required to complete a healthcare assessment to check they were eligible to live there.