A massive marquee will be the setting for the crucial vote on the future of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society.

The marquee, which has cost the building society £40,000 to hire and put up, has taken 50 people a week to sort out in time for Monday's watershed annual meeting.

The tent has been set up because a large turnout of B&B members are expected at the event to vote on whether the building society should become a bank.

The vote has been forced by rebel member Stephen Major, of Lisburn, Co Antrim, who has won the support of 70 other members to put a pro-conversion vote to the meeting.

Mr Major announced his intention to push for the building society to turn into a bank at the end of December and since then each side has been battling for support.

It is the only one of a succession of pro-conversion bids to have gone to a vote this year. Earlier the Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society and the Skipton both rejected bids by former Royal butler and chief carpetbagger Michael Hardern to force a conversion vote and stand for their boards.

The Bradford & Bingley has mounted a huge anti-conversion campaign costing nearly £10 million in advertising, promotional and postage costs.

More than 60 per cent - over 1.5 million - of the Bradford & Bingley's 2.5 million members have already cast their vote and the final outcome will be known at the end of Monday's annual meeting which is due to start at 2.30pm.

The huge tent, which will hold 1,000 people, is being put up next to the building society's headquarters on Crossflatts Cricket Club. A spokesman for the B&B said: "This is a big project and we are having to cater for every eventuality."

The marquee has been supplied by Huddersfield firm John Associates and was last used when the Bradford & Bingley explained its new business strategy to its staff shortly after the arrival of chief executive Christopher Rodrigues.

The Bradford & Bingley is laying on bus services for its staff from Bingley and Wilsden on the morning of the annual meeting.

James Evans, senior press officer at the Bradford & Bingley, said: "This is a crucial moment in the history of the Bradford & Bingley. We are expecting hundreds of people to turn up."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.