West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is hoping to expand its Bradford headquarters by buying an adjoining site for more than £500,000.

The fire service is in negotiations to purchase the ambulance fleet workshop at the back of its Oakroyd Hall headquarters, in Bradford Road, Birkenshaw.

The move allays fears that the creation of a new regional fire control centre in Wakefield could signal the end of Birkenshaw as the hub of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

If the sale goes through, the fire service would redevelop the ambulance workshop to create new office space as part of plans to make the Birkenshaw site a regional resilience centre for special operations such as Urban Search and Rescue.

Negotiations have been ongoing between fire service bosses and Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust for two years, but West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority has now given approval to the negotiated purchase of the site for £575,000.

The fire service will have to obtain planning permission for its redevelopment proposals and listed building consent because the site is near the Grade II listed Oakroyd Hall.

Kirklees Councillor Robert Light (Con, Birstall and Birkenshaw), said: “This cements the fire service’s presence in Birkenshaw, which is great news for the area.

“It adjoins the site, so it’s sensible for the fire service to buy it. It will also end the dual use of the site. While the control room will be moving out of Birkenshaw, it means that, because of skilful management of the site, we have been able to get new activities on site.

“It will be a centre of resilience for Yorkshire and Humberside, with a lot of national-based facilities like urban search and rescue being done from Birkenshaw.”

Coun Light, who is also a member of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, said the new 999 control centre in Wakefield was still going ahead but had been delayed and was not now likely to open until 2010.

In relation to the Birkenshaw plans, a fire service spokesman said: “It’s still with the solicitors at the moment, so nothing has gone through yet.”

The spokesman said it could be another two years before the proposal came to fruition.

The ambulance service is planning to open a new workshop facility in Wakefield to replace the one in Birkenshaw.