A £9 million adult mental health unit will have an intensive care department where the doors will be locked.

It has been designed to prevent patients who need special care, sneaking out unseen and harming themselves or possibly committing suicide.

And it will replace the unit in Airedale General Hospital at Steeton, where six patients left the wing and killed themselves on the nearby Airedale railway line in 12 months between 2001 and 2002.

The new two storey, three ward facility will be build in the grounds of Airedale Hospital, but run by Bradford and District Care Trust.

There will be just one entrance offering better supervision and even then clients will then have to pass the reception.

Work is due to start on the site on a grassy bank next to the entrance in the summer, with completion in 2006.

The newly established BDCT took over the unit from Airedale NHS Trust in the spring of 2002.

It closely followed the series of suicides on the nearby railway line. Among them were Susan Steinker, 44, of Oakworth, who had lost her feet in an earlier suicide bid on the line, and 62 year-old Florence Burland, of Keighley. They were found with their arms around each other on the line in October 2001.

The Bradford Coroner Roger Whittaker recorded that they had died while the balance of their minds was disturbed.

On the take-over BDCT immediately set about introducing a new management structure.

It spent about £160,000 on ensuring a higher level of qualified staff, employing a "matron" and improving the environment.

Chris Bielby, director of BDCT said a public consultation exercise had revealed that improvements to the mental health services at Airedale was a "high priority."

Airedale and Craven, Harrogate and Rural District PCT's had been consulted along with patients, users, medical staff, the voluntary sector about how it would be designed and operated.

"One thing came out of the consultation was that however brilliant the place was designed, you only got a good service if you had trained staff working in the right way.

"During the public consultation there was a lot of discussion relating to safety and the alternative was to go to Skipton hospital.

"But there were problems there because it is near the railway and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal."

The ward for patients with dementia is to remain on the Airedale hospital site where it was more convenient for any medical care they needed. It had also been refurbished, he added.