Rock climber John Beers is determined that his new £100,000 business venture will get off the ground.

The 39-year-old dad-of-two is looking to build the perfect platform for an indoor climbing centre next to the ancient Ryshworth Hall, Crossflatts, Bingley, and has applied to Bradford Council for planning permission to open the centre.

The council will decide next month whether to give the go ahead to turn his workshop in the former stable block into the new climbing centre.

Mr Beers, of Eldwick, said: “There is a massive call for activities for kids to do with their parents and climbing is a great way of getting fit and having fun.

“We are in an ideal position because we already have the team here needed to design a climbing wall and build it and that is why we went for planning permission.”

Mr Beers set up his company Hang Fast a decade ago and now employs 13 full-time workers at Ryshworth Works in Keighley Road.

The business is one of the few in the country which manufactures “industrial adventure structures”, including climbing walls and assault courses and have been involved in designing and building climbing walls in Pudsey and Lancaster and as far afield as the Falkland Islands.

It has also rigged large-scale screens for Test matches at Headingley Cricket Ground and at England’s rugby union ground, Twickenham. The company has just taken on a contract with Silverstone – the home of the British Grand Prix – to provide television rigging on its large screens.

Mr Beers, who started the business in his garage, said it had grown so much he had been forced to move from Ryshworth Works to a larger unit at the Castlefields Industrial Estate in Crossflatts.

His plans for the climbing centre have been backed by neighbours and owners of the workshop, UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), formerly Bradford & Bingley.

He said: “There is a massive area along the Aire and Wharfe Valley corridors with a huge amount of climbers and there are few facilities like this for them in this area.

“We have put a planning application in and we have had very positive feedback from the planners.

“We are cautiously optimistic.”

Council planners will decide whether to approve the planning application on September 7.