Cafe torn down after being built without consent

Work is under way to demolish the Chai Village building and LED screen

Work is under way to demolish a cafe which was built without planning permission in a Bradford conservation area three years ago.

Plans for the Chai Village, off Thornton Road, were turned down by Bradford Council in 2021, but the cafe was put up without consent.

Since then, five attempts to gain retrospective planning permission for the building, which incorporates a shipping container, have failed.

The development, on a former mill site, is being torn down more than eight months after the owner was ordered to clear the land.

Councillors had turned down the cafe, in the Goitside Conservation Area, due to concerns about a large LED screen on the site and the impact on traffic, the Local Democracy Service said.

They also feared it was out of keeping with the surrounding area and could hinder future development of a key site near the city centre.

Chai Village LTD had a final appeal turned down early last year.

The site of the partially demolished cafe, which was built in 2002

In May last year, Bradford Council issued an enforcement notice ordering the site to be cleared within one month.

The deadline passed in June with the buildings and LED screen still in place.

Since that time, the buildings have become increasingly derelict and daubed in graffiti, with the site also attracting waste.

LDRS contact Bradford Council to ask whether the authority or the owner was behind the clearance of the site.

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