Holiday cottages illegally built on £1,000,000 ancient woodland to be demolished

A Yorkshire council has demanded that landowners tear down holiday homes after they were illegally built on ancient woodland.

Bradford City Council has ordered Jacobs Woods Farm in Silsden to remove four holiday cabins which were constructed on protected land that has caused ‘substantial tree loss’.

The authority said five large concrete pads, a septic tank, an access track, and stockpiled earth and aggregate are also being stored without permission.

In an enforcement notice sent to the farm, the council said all construction must stop on the site and the buildings removed within six months.

It also instructed the landowners to plant 300 trees to make up for the damage already done to the ‘irreplaceable’ woodland.

Drone images show holiday homes sprawling across 33 acres, which the owner bought in October 2024 for £1.05 million.

The enforcement read: ‘The unauthorised works are considered to have a harmful effect on the openness of the green belt to the extent that it is not preserved.

‘The development of the wooded area has resulted in substantial tree loss, altering the character and appearance of the area, resulting in a harmful urbanising effect that diminishes the special character and appearance of the Airedale Landscape which is typically upland pastures with wooded inclines.’

But the owners of the site are fighting the decision and have lodged an appeal which will be considered at a public hearing on July 21.

The appellant said the holiday homes will encourage tourism in the area and that all the new works were finished before the landowners bought the site.

The appeal said: ‘The appellant is an innocent party, with all works completed prior to their acquisition of the site.

‘The erected buildings on site provide holiday let accommodation, which will complement the existing permitted holiday lets on site and support the local economy through job creation and the wider network through the use local suppliers.’

It also added that the demand to plant hundreds of trees was excessive. ‘The planting of 300 trees without any calculations as to how the council achieved this figure is not acceptable,’ the appeal reads.

But the council maintains the development has caused loss of ground flora, trees, and has negatively impacted the biodiversity of the South Pennine Moors.

The local authority also said Google Earth images show there was no development on the land before May 2025.

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