POLICE investigating whether criminal activity has taken place within Keighley Town Council have received documents from auditors who published a critical report about the council last year.

West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit was asked to look into the town council last November, after an external audit report highlighted serious failings in the way the town council handled public money.

The report, compiled by London-based accountants PKF Littlejohn, also concluded that the town council might have acted unlawfully.

The police stepped in at the request of Keighley MP Kris Hopkins.

Ramona Senior, head of the police's Economic Crime Unit, said: “We have received appropriate paperwork from auditors and are investigating the matters raised by Mr Hopkins to see if any criminal activity has taken place.”

Conservative MP Mr Hopkins said: “It is certainly positive news that the police inquiry is fully under way.

"Officers must now be allowed to get on with their work free from outside interference, and I look forward to hearing the outcome of their investigations in due course.”

Campaigner Elizabeth Mitchell, of Ingrow, was one of the Keighley residents whose concerns about the council prompted the external audit. She said she was delighted that the probe into whether offences have been committed was being handled by the specialist Economic Crime Unit.

"I would encourage anyone – members of the public and councillors – who has any concerns about wrongdoing within the town council to contact the police," she said.

She noted that she was very dissatisfied with the town council's response to PKF Littlejohn's audit, and said: "The wrongdoing still continues to this day and there's still a cloak of secrecy thrown over it.

"What the public want is accountability and we want to know who is responsible.

"We can't move on with a council where we still have the same people in place."

Keighley Town Mayor, Councillor Graham Mitchell, declined to comment.

Newly-appointed town clerk Tom Ferry did not respond to a request to comment from the Telegraph & Argus's sister paper the Keighley News.

However, last month, Mr Ferry said that he would not have taken up the post at the town council if he believed there was even a "remote" chance of criminality within it.

He said: "The council has rightly made its apology to the people of Keighley for falling short of the standards they should expect from an elected body. The process has already started to rectify those areas in the auditors' report."