SHIPLEY Area Committee members have asked Bradford Council’s executive to approve making three prominent sites in Bingley community assets.

And the committee’s chairman, a Bingley councillor, says Bingley town hall is “very much a community venue” after the committee decided to go against a recommendation by Bradford Council officers to reject calls for the status to be applied.

The town hall has joined Myrtle Park and Bingley Swimming Pool as being recommended for community asset status by Shipley Area Committee, after they were initially submitted by Bingley Town Council.

The officers' report suggested the town hall was not recommended for the status because it is used by Bradford Council for offices which makes it an operational building, housing more than 100 employees, and has been used for this purpose for the last 50 years.

The committee will now produce a report and it will now go before the council’s executive.

Cllr David Hestletine (Con, Bingley) argued the town hall has been used for a number of community events over the years, including Remembrance Day post-parade receptions, councillor surgeries and meetings of groups including Bingley Photographic Society and Bingley Civic Society.

He said: “Bingley Town Hall has been used by the community for a number of years. It should be a community venue and accessed by the community.”

But Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Lab, Windhill and Wrose), who also attended the committee meeting, voted against recommending the town hall as an asset of community value, saying he supported the initial decision of the council’s officer. He said: “It did not quite meet the criteria and we are not saying that it is not an important building in the community and that we do not value it.”

Bingley Town Council chairman, Ros Dawson said: “The Town Council is delighted that it has been supported by Shipley Area Committee in this move to protect some of Bingley’s most precious assets.”

Meanwhile, a number of sites in Jenny Lane, Baildon - the wooded area, the playground, rugby ground south and rugby ground north - were all approved to become assets of community value by the committee.

The recommendations have been made under the Localism Act 2011, which allows communities the time to prepare bids for land and property assessed as being of benefit to the community when those assets come up for disposal.

Local community groups and parish councils are able to nominate privately and publicly-owned land and property.