A PRESSURE group has called for Bradford Council to buy a Keighley mill so that it can create a new footpath.

Bandag, which campaigns on environmental and housing issues, wants the Council to snap up Holme Mills, which was formerly used by cardboard tube manufacturer J Stell & Sons.

The group believes the site, which lies in the North Beck valley between Fell Lane and Braithwaite, would provide the ‘missing link’ for a long-distance footpath.

Bandag has long campaigned for a through-route linking the centre of Keighley to the moors above, Oakworth, Laycock and Goose Eye, and on to the Pennine Way.

Several organisations, including Bandag and the Keighley West Environmental Partnership, have made efforts to provide new public access to private land along the North Beck to link existing footpaths.

BANDAG spokesman Barbara Archer said there was a one-time “window of opportunity” after Holme Mills went on the market.

J Stell & Sons plans to move out of Holme Mills and relocate three miles across town.

The 17.2-acre site has been allocated for 196 new homes.

Councillor Jan Smithies , a leading light in the Keighley West Environmental Partnership, said the Council could not afford to buy the Holme Millsite when it was due to make £40m of cuts to services, but she said she was “fully committed” to negotiating with whoever buys it.