THE demolition of an old industrial site in Bingley has been backed by the town’s business leaders and councillors.

Work to take down the former cattle market buildings at Bingley Auction Mart in Keighley Road is due to start on Easter Monday after permission was granted by Bradford Council.

The application to demolish the site, which has been largely vacant since the market moved out in 1995, was submitted by Elland-based Commercial Development Projects (CDP) last month.

The buildings will be demolished on safety grounds and no plans have yet been submitted to the Council for the future use of the site.

Councillor John Pennington (Con, Bingley) said: “After a very long time, at last something is going to happen at the site to bring it back to use. It will then bring a benefit to Bingley.”

Howard Martin, president of Bingley Chamber of Trade, said: “Hopefully this is the first stage of something happening on the site and its redevelopment, rather than it just being left.

“I do not know about what it will be used for next. Will it be a case of clearing up the site for something else?”

The former auction mart buildings have been badly damaged by vandals with parts daubed with graffiti. A fire took hold in one of the derelict buildings in September last year. It was believed to have been started deliberately by teenagers.

Plans to build a supermarket there were refused last year. Lidl and CDP had jointly applied to the Council to open a store with 140 parking spaces.

But the proposal was turned down by the Council’s regulations and appeals committee on the grounds that it would have an adverse impact on existing and committed investment in Bingley town centre.

Committee members also said the development would fail to make a “positive contribution to the area”.

Lidl subsequently bought the former Bradford & Bingley Building Society site in Main Street from Sainsbury’s in January this year and is expected to submit plans later this year to build a supermarket there.

No-one at CDP was available for comment about its future plans for the auction mart.