The Keighley area is in the running for a new call centre which could create up to 400 jobs.

A major UK firm is looking at a site in the area along with a second in another part of the country.

A spokesman for Bradford & District Training & Enterprise Council said: "A major company is going to choose between two places, one of which is Keighley. The firm offers a wide variety of services to the public including financial services."

The firm, which has not yet been named, has already earmarked a building it could use if it went ahead with its plans.

It is expected the company would have to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds refurbishing the building if the deal was clinched.

The firm is working with Bradford Council's inward investment team and the district's Training & Enterprise Council.

Already hundreds of people have expressed an interest in joining the new company, following advertising in the Telegraph & Argus and other marketing.

A TEC spokesman added: "We have received a huge number of phone calls in response."

The results will be sent on to the company which will decide whether to set up in Keighley, he added.

Bradford district is the call-centre capital of the nation with more than 4,000 people staffing phones and offering customer advice.

By the year 2002, the Bradford area is expected to employ about 6,000 people in the industry and much of the success is down to the Yorkshire accent which people regard as friendly.

Many of the present jobs are with large employers like Grattan, which currently employs more than 500 people in its call centre off Ingleby Road, Bradford, and is planning to create another 350 jobs in a new business with supermarket chain Tesco.

Abbey National employs a total of 400 people in two centres and plans to employ up to 120 extra later this year.

Colonnade Direct in Halifax, part of the Bradford-based Provident Financial Group, employs 280 staff and plans to recruit another 100.

The Bradford & Bingley has more than 60 people answering customer queries at its Bingley offices and also has a main call centre in Leamington Spa.

Yorkshire Electricity employs 275 at its call centre in Parry Lane, Bradford, and Yorkshire Water has 150 in its centre in Buttershaw. Computer firm ISA International has around 140 involved in telesales and customer service.

And Natwest is about to create 150 new jobs at its Prime Line direct-banking department in Filey Street, Bradford, where 200 are already employed.

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