A team of experts is to launch on Monday an in-depth investigation into flooding in Keighley.

The main aim of the team is to analyse the risk, nature and scale of flooding, identify what needs to be done to reduce the risk of flooding and find ways to lessen the flooding effects.

The team will be chaired by Richard Ashley, professor of urban water at Bradford University. Other members include Jan Davey, regional manager of the Environment Agency, Andrew Abbot, chairman of Keighley's Stockbridge Community Association, and Kersten England, Bradford Council's interim director of policy and executive support.

Staff from Bradford Council, Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency and other relevant agencies will also give technical support.

Cllr Andrew Mallinson is on the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee and the Scrutiny Panel for the Environment. He will be liaising between the committees as the review progresses.

He said: "This committee is the first of its kind for the Keighley district. It will be looking at how council services respond to such situations and how they can be more pro-active.

"It will be looking at what the council can do differently -- such as influencing planning decisions to make sure proper draining is installed, looking at the leisure services to see if we might be able to create lagoons or lakes where the water could flow into and even how the council contributes to global warming.

"I think it's great that since the flood forum was set up we are now getting people together to really look at the problem -- from a local level all the way up to professionals, like Prof Ashley."

The team will study scientific evidence, local information on flooding cases and good practice from elsewhere.

Cllr Anne Hawkesworth, executive member for environment, said: "This investigation should help the agencies involved learn more about ways of protecting homes, businesses and communities against the damage flooding can cause.

"It is a positive step forward in addressing the effects of climate change on the local environment."

The study, co-ordinated by the council's department of policy and executive support, will be completed by early March, with a final report being published at the end of March this year. A Flood Summit will then be held in the summer to consider the report's findings.

The investigation was supported by the council's executive last October following an increase in local flooding incidents over recent years -- the worst being in the Stockbridge area of Keighley, in October 2000, when more than 200 properties were flooded.