After secret talks to secure the future of Bingley market this week, a councillor has called for decisive action to produce a lasting plan.

A consortium of three businessmen, who want to take control of the market, met with markets manager Colin Wolstenholme and Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, the Bradford Council executive member for skills and culture, on Tuesday and talks behind closed doors were said to be “constructive and encouraging.”

Meanwhile, Bingley Councillor Simon Cooke (Con) has tabled a motion on the market to be debated at next week’s Bradford Council full meeting.

“It would be sad if dithering and petty bureaucracy killed Bingley Market,” said Coun Cooke.

“The council can talk about processes and tendering, but the simplest thing here is to say ‘off you go’.”

Coun Cooke said he hoped a deal could be struck swiftly with the consortium who wish to take over the total running of the market including setting up stalls, managing and collecting rents from traders.

His motion for debate is that: “Council welcomes the interest from local businesses in taking over Bingley Market and asks for the Director of Regeneration to work with them and ward members in securing a sustainable future for the market.”

Coun Cooke said he fully supported anyone eager to do something if they had well-laid plans. “If you have got people in a partnership who want to take on this work, ready to put a bit of oomph! into it, then they should be encouraged,” he said.

“There can be a culture of putting forward reasons why not to do something, a reluctance to make the type of decisions that get things done.

“Why the Council aren’t biting these people’s hands off, I just don’t know.”

The Council is keen to off-load the cost of setting up and dismantling the stalls and wishes the traders to take on that responsibility themselves.

However, it wants to keep control of gathering the rents for each pitch.

Coun Cooke said he understood the situation to be that the Council was reluctant to give up the money-making side of the business – despite it making a loss due to current costings – and simply wanted the traders to set up their own stalls for no reward.

“Trying to persuade people to do something like that for nothing is just nonsense,” he said. Market trader and haulage firm boss Dean McNally said the latest meeting between himself, 5Rise manager Richard Holmes and the Council representatives had been productive. “We talked for over two hours and it was constructive and encouraging because they agreed to take our proposals away for discussion and we’ll have another meeting soon,” Mr McNally said.

“It needs to be sorted out quickly, but the wheels are in motion which is obviously a good thing.”