A MAN whose home was flooded on Boxing Day 2015 fears work by a neighbouring business to replace a bridge over Silsden Beck could threaten his property with further flooding.

Ian Boulton, of Keighley Road, fears Marsel Display Solutions' re-construction of the bridge across the road from his home will protect the company but will create a bottleneck, which during future bouts of heavy rain would cause overflowing water to spill out onto the road and downhill into his house.

But Marsel Display Solutions' managing director Graeme Alton has disputed Mr Boulton's claim, arguing that the company would never put other people's homes at risk to protect its own premises.

"We're simply replacing what was there before," he said. "And we've gone through all the correct channels with the local authority and the Environment Agency."

Mr Boulton, 53, a self-employed builder, owns six houses in this area and five of them – including the house in which he lives – were flooded on Boxing Day 2015.

He has been been working on raising the ground floor level of some of his properties to try and defend against future flooding.

He said: "Marsel appear to be reinstalling this bridge or flood defence, but ironically this was partially the reason the flooding occurred in the first place when the old bridge collapsed into the beck.

"That old bridge had been used by milk tankers but was made redundant in 2000 when Marsel constructed their new factory.

"I'm now concerned that the bridge that's being erected is no more than yet another flood defence to protect their building.

"It would make all excess water flow out onto Keighley Road, leaving me with an even higher risk of flooding than before."

He acknowledged that Marsel's property, which he said was built on a site excavated down to the level of the beck, is vulnerable to being flooded but added this was the gamble taken by that business.

However, Mr Alton responded: "There have been flooding issues in this area for years, and it's generally been flash flooding, even in the summer months when the level of the beck can rise very quickly.

"We've been on this site for about 17 and 18 years, and there had always been a bridge at that location which became part of our flood defences. It wasn't anything new.

"The bridge was badly damaged on Boxing Day 2015 and since then we've been liaising with the local authority and with Bradford Council to try and put things back to the way they were before the floods.

"We've done everything we should have done, which is why it has taken so long for us to be able to start work."

Mr Alton said even without a bottleneck at the point where the replacement bridge is being built, water would still back up during bouts of heavy rain a short distance downstream at the Belton Road bridge across Silsden Beck, which his business has no control over.

"The last thing we want to do is improve our own situation to the detriment of anyone else," he said.