A FORMER council run centre used by disabled residents of Bradford could soon become a new wedding and conference venue.

New plans submitted to Bradford Council would see the former Whetley Hill Resource Centre in Manningham transformed into a new venue known as the White Abbey Ballroom.

The application, by a recently registered group called White Abbey Ballroom Ltd, says the new business would create 25 full time jobs.

The resource centre had been used for 35 years by disabled adults, who visited to take part in a range of activities designed to improve their health and well-being. But in 2011 Bradford Council announced that the “lifeline” resource would be shutting due to budget cuts.

Although opposition to the plans extended the life of the centre a few years, it was eventually closed and has remained empty ever since.

The property was declared surplus to Council requirements, and the two acre site was put up for auction in September 2016 with a guide price of £250,000. However, on the day of the auction the lot smashed that estimate, eventually selling for £679,000.

The new planning application says there will be no major changes to the two storey, 1,568 square metre building other than a new entrance. But the plans do include a massive expansion of the on site car park, increasing the size from 25 spaces to 81 spaces.

The planning application says the venue will be used for weddings, conferences, parties and presentation events. It adds: “The changes proposed will bring commercial uses into a building which is almost purpose designed, and that can accommodate what is proposed with minimal alterations and only one small extension, and has a frontage to a major urban distributor highway.

“The proposed use will be in conformity with the prevailing mixed land uses that predominate in the area.”

A decision on the application is expected in early October.

Last year plans to turn the building into offices and storage were submitted by Panache Textiles. Although the plans were approved, that re-development never went ahead.

If the ballroom plans are approved, the venue will be the latest in a number of similar venues to be proposed in Bradford.

In May plans by S&A Developments to turn the long empty former Maestro’s nightclub on Manningham Lane into a wedding, banqueting and conference facility were approved by Bradford Council.

In April an application to convert Westfield House on Ingleby Road, a former Grattan catalogue shop, into a wedding and banqueting venue was submitted by Mohammed Tayyab.

That application said: “Over recent years, the demand for banqueting facilities to serve the Asian wedding market has grown significantly. This growth combined with a limited choice of venues in the city has led to a number of new venues opening across the city to serve this growing sector.”

The Council has yet to make a decision on that application.