HEBDEN Bridge, a jewel in West Yorkshire's crown, is under attack from crackpot architects and greedy investors.

A revised £10 million, privately funded proposal for a seven-storey car-parking complex with 110 public spaces on an existing car park is with Calderdale Council. The proposal includes 48 homes plus retail/starter enterprise units.

Two of the car-parking storeys are subterranean with a stacker system (like a car lift) and five storeys above. (Click here to read more about them)

Considering the location is in an area of Hebden Bridge that has flooded at least twice in the past 10 years and the existing 10-metre retaining wall is holding up Keighley Road and Birchencliffe (a steep residential area, probably at a 1:3 gradient) the engineering logistics are mind blowing. To excavate two levels will require pile driving in excess of this.

No one wants flats, low cost or otherwise. People want their own front door, as is shown by the number of vacant apartments on the market in these valleys.

The hideous artist's impression of the development contradicts Studio Baad's declaration of their "passion to preserve the town's character and heritage" – the buildings have a drunken appearance; they list.

They cannot even make it look good.

Local residents will not be surprised, though. Other projects that have not escaped Studio Baad's drawing board have included a revolving millennium stage with a clam shell cover, which would have travelled round the park on tracks; a development of "tree houses" – existing mature tree trunks growing through balcony decks; and an eco-development on a drained mill pond that upset residents when the chainsaws went in prematurely and destroyed local wildlife habitats.

Unfortunately, the local authority has agreed in principle to a scheme by these people; only public outcry and common sense has kept it at bay.

However, David Fletcher declared confidently a month ago that his new planning application was just a formality.

The character of Hebden Bridge has evolved over time from 17th-century mills to Victorian under-and-over dwellings to the new, delightful canal marina. We do not need a futuristic car-stacking car park modelled on that constructed on a bombed-out Munich wasteland.

And all this to be completed after "just over two years", during which time there will be no car parking and Hebden Bridge's great little shops will have folded. I don't think so.

Please let common sense prevail.

(Mrs) Linda Shaw