THE future of an eyesore building which has been derelict for 15 years may become clearer this week.

Bingley’s Priesthorpe Building - part of the former Bingley Science, Arts and Technical School, on Mornington Road, opposite Priesthorpe Primary School - dates back to the 1880s. It has been empty since 2002, when it shut as a vocational training centre.

Bradford Council is a trustee of the former technical school, and a covenant on the building means it should only be used for the benefit of education in the town.

However, for years the Council has been unable to find anyone to buy the building for this purpose, and earlier this year it was suggested the authority sell it, and plough any money made from the sale into local education.

At the next meeting of the Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee, members will be given an update on the building’s future.

Members have been advised to treat the building as an “Asset of Community Value” and to give local groups until the end of September to submit business cases on how they would find a new use for the building that “balances educational purposes and best price”. A decision on the building’s future would then be made at the end of the year.

The report to the committee says the Council has been unable to identify a use for the building “which complies with educational aims and objectives”. It also says the Council does not have the funds to restore the building, and has received a number of complaints about its state.

After a public consultation, two groups have come forward to help run the building. Bingley Town Council said the building should be used as residential, community or commercial use, and that the building should be listed as an asset of community value before being sold.

Another interested party was Gemma Price, who lives near the building and runs Idle-based Superfood Market, which sells ethically produced food online. She said the company would be willing to re-locate to the building if it meant it would be saved.

The Council report says allocating the building as an asset of community value would be the preferred option.

Mrs Price told the Telegraph & Argus that she would rather see the building be taken on by a community group, or even converted to housing, but that if all other options fell through, her company would be happy to move there once the lease on their Idle base ends.

She said: “I live 100 yards from this building, and I’m sick of looking at it in the state it is in. It is a building that Bingley can’t lose. It is horrible having seen what was once an awesome building turn into this shell.”

The committee will meet in Bradford City Hall at 3pm on Thursday.