DEVELOPERS are being invited to bid for a plot of land where a day centre once stood.

Hillingdon Council granted itself planning permission for the former Honeycroft Day Centre site, in Honeycroft Hill, Uxbridge, earlier this month, to build 26 flats.

Now permission has been granted, the site which closed as a day centre in 2008 is more marketable.

The council has set a deadline of December 15 for bids.

Some local people feel the detail of the development is flawed and they question why a path along the River Pinn has not been allowed.

Bob Parsons, former chairman of North Uxbridge Residents’ Association, said: “This has been running for over a year and there have been four sets of revisions to the plans.

“We maintain it is essential to provide a riverside walkway to link the site into RAF Uxbridge, but they have chosen not to include this and the reasons cited against it are pretty weak.

“For us it would be an integral part of the scheme.”

The council’s arguments for not including a path were that it could disturb badgers which forage close to the River Pinn and that the entrance to the flats could become a drop-off point for parents taking children to a new school, when it is eventually built on the RAF Uxbridge site.

Mr Parsons said: “The site was earmarked for a housing development, which is not necessarily the wrong thing to do, but it has to be done right, and developed to be compatible with the area.

“It has been described as looking like a tithe barn by the size and blandness of it.

“The area is surrounded by semi-detached houses and here’s this great slab going in.”