DM Keith to develop Bradford used car sales site beside new road scheme

DM Keith has gained planning approval to expand its Braford Skoda dealership's used car sales site beside a major new road development.

The plan to expand into the former Dickson Caravans retail site into a 108-bay used car forecourt featuring temporary buildings to provide valeting and vehicle photography comes as a road improvement scheme promises to channel more traffic past the facility.

Planners at Bradford Council gave the green light to the Leeds-based Skoda, Honda, Seat and Cupra dealership to proceed with the scheme this week, stating that the development “represents a visual improvement to the site”.

The Bradford Telegraph and Argus newspaper reported that the DM Keith business had said that it wanted to see how viable the site is as a dealership before investing in permanent buildings, however.

The T&A said that Dickinson Caravans on Canal Road, between Shipley and Bradford, had closed last year having operated since the 1970s.

But the site could be about to benefit from increased volumes of passing trade as Bradford Council moves ahead with The Canal Road Corridor scheme.

The multi-million-pound project will see a large stretch of Canal Road widened and made the main route for cars and HGVs between Shipley and Bradford.

Approving DM Keith’s plans for the its new used car facility, planners from the authority said: "Canal Road is to be widened and this will see the existing stone wall with unsightly palisade fence on top demolished and replaced by a 1.8m high paladin fence along the new edge of the site with a metal sliding gate protecting the entrance outside of operating hours.

"This represents a visual improvement to the site. Within the site lighting columns will illuminate the site in hours of darkness and this will not be harmful to visual amenity subject to a condition requiring submission of details of these lighting columns being submitted for approval.”

The T&A reported that one condition of DM Keith’s approved application is that its temporary buildings must be removed from the site within five years unless the company applies for an extension.