A well-used community centre on the Bracken Bank estate, in Keighley, has been threatened with closure.

The management committee at the St Michael's Centre is understood to have been hit by a massive rent increase.

Members have for several weeks been negotiating with St John's Church, Ingrow, which owns the Bracken Bank Grove building.

The committee is considering moving some of the building's many activities to the Sue Belcher Centre, on nearby Bracken Bank Avenue. Both centres are managed by Bracken Bank and District Community Association, which employs two workers to organise activities.

The association is already facing pressure following the recent reduction of its annual running-costs grant from Bradford Council.

Association chairman Gillian Webster this week refused to comment on the future of St Michael's or its long-time development worker Ian Kayley.

She said an emergency committee meeting would be held on Monday to discuss future plans and negotiations with the church were on-going.

Committee member Margaret Smith told the Keighley News of her concern for the St Michael's luncheon club, which she has run for the past seven years.

She said the Sue Belcher Centre was not big enough for her elderly members, nor the line dancing and karate classes held weekly at St Michael's. She added: "I have about 24 to 30 members every Monday.

"For some of them it's the only place they go all week. St Michael's has a user group in every day. Hardly anyone uses the Sue Belcher Centre."

Bracken Bank residents are preparing petitions to save the St Michael's Centre and a demonstration outside the building.