MOVES have begun to force businesses and sports clubs to sell their land to make way for a road widening scheme.

Bradford Council advertised its intention to serve compulsory purchase orders on up to seven organisations along Hard Ings Road, Keighley.

The council also issued a strongly-worded statement that it would not allow the dual-carriageway project to be endangered by companies’ delaying tactics.

But Keighley MP Kris Hopkins pleaded with the council to force through property sales only if all other efforts to secure the necessary land failed.

He said: “We need to improve our local transport infrastructure and this project is therefore welcome. However, when upgrades are being delivered, local disruption should always be kept to a minimum and compulsory purchase orders used only as a last resort.”

The council has issued a public notice listing the 14 pieces of land it needs to create an extra vehicle lane and a cycle lane. The council intends to take land from in front of every business on the north side.

These include Keighley Cricket Club, Keighley Cougars, a filling station, United Carpets, Fibreline and Keighley Ambulance Station. In most cases the expanded road would only take up grass verges, embankments and concrete frontages.

The Hard Ings Motor Company could lose its forecourt, but the owners are understood to have alternative land available next to the nearby Beeches restaurant in Bradford Road.

Keighley Cougars has a camera gantry within United Carpets car park, but will have to move it inside the rugby ground because the carpet firm needs the land to replace parking spaces lost to the road widening. A council spokesman said negotiations were continuing with landowners but admitted it might not be possible to reach agreements in time for work to be carried out before the completion target of 2019. He said: “We would always prefer to come to an agreement with landowners rather than go down the road of compulsory purchase. However, we can’t allow the whole scheme to be put at risk by delays over small parcels of land which are needed to deliver it. The scheme will ultimately benefit Keighley and the Bradford area economically, improve traffic flow and reduce air pollution in the area.”

Keighley Cougars chairman Gary Fawcett said the club had no objections to the road widening scheme. But he said: “We will hopefully get some financial assistance from Bradford Council for moving the gantry as part of the fact they’re taking some of our land at the front.”

Keighley Cricket Club treasurer Nigel Allsopp said the club would only lose part of its boundary wall, and the council would widen its entrance as part of the project. He added: “We’re concerned about long-term effects like noise and pollution because the road will be nearer the clubhouse, and damage to our buildings from dirt and lorries going past.”

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it was currently negotiating with Bradford Council and would meet representatives this month.