Sunday is D-Day for the long-awaited operation to build a new £3 million bus station in Keighley.

The final bus will leave the present 60-year-old station in the direction of Bradford on Saturday at 11.10pm.

The next day will see local buses setting off from new temporary stops on surrounding streets.

Shelters for the stops have been placed in Cavendish Street, Hanover Street and North Street.

The Keighley News this week publishes a map (opposite) showing the new setting-off points for all the services.

The stops will be in use for up to nine months as contractors build a new 21st century bus station on the site of the old.

The majority of the reconstruction work is expected to be complete before the start of the Christmas shopping period.

Keighley and District Travel, the main local bus operator, has already moved out of its old base in the Art Deco bus offices.

The 250 workers, drivers and ancillary staff are now based in Cavendish House, the former Halifax Building Society Building, at the bus station entrance.

The new station is being funded through a partnership of the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority (Metro), Bradford council, Keighley Single Regeneration Budget, bus operator Keighley and District Travel, and Keighley Town Centre Management.

Cllr John Prestage, local spokesman for the authority, says he is delighted to see the scheme moving ahead.

"This redevelopment will provide a worthy replacement bus station, more befitting Keighley's 21st century expectations," he says.

"Keighley bus station is the main gateway into our town and visitors will gain a vastly improved first impression with this new facility.

"It will greatly enhance the opportunities to increase Keighley's profile and prosperity and its prospects for the future."

Stuart Wilde, managing director of Keighley and District Travel, says his firm is "totally supportive" of the new bus station development.

"The company has been a major player in the creation of the design, and is committing a capital sum to the construction and fitting out of the new station," he says.

"It has involved a major upheaval for Keighley and District Travel as we have lost the use of the existing bus station offices.

"The transfer of all bus services into the adjacent streets has also required a great deal of planning, administration and extra staff time."

Mr Wilde says the new station will be a major boost to local shops as well as the general well-being of the whole of Keighley.

He adds: "I feel our valued Keighley customers have already waited far too long for the comfort and convenience of a modern bus station with a very much safer design."