Fears over future of historic Ingrow, Keighley, cotton mill redevelopment (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Fears over future of historic Ingrow, Keighley, cotton mill redevelopment

9:14am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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A 200-year-old Keighley cotton mill initially hailed as a major restoration and regeneration project is now just a “ruin in the middle of a building site” says a dismayed councillor.

Bradford councillor Chris Greaves said he was “horrified and appalled” at the state of the former Grove Mills in Ingrow.

A campaign was launched to save the mill in Halifax Road, and suggestions were made in 2004 by Council planners and developers Skipton Properties that about half of the mill would be kept.

Councillor Greaves, chairman of the Keighley Area Planning Panel, said: “It’s a tragedy. When the application first came through, the mill was going to be saved – this was meant to be a regeneration project.”

Skipton Properties won planning permission in April 2006, when it said it would build more than 350 flats and 53 houses at Grove Mills. The original plan included proposals for a gym, a creche, a health club, a swimming pool, shops and a cafe.

In March 2008, the developers reduced the number of flats planned and increased the houses.

Harold Lowther, 60, of Hainworth Lane, who has lived opposite the mill for 20 years, said he and his neighbours had been expecting it to be converted into smart apartments.

When the £65 million scheme was approved, it was expected to bring better community facilities to the area, and he and his neighbours raised little objection, but he now fears these public improvements would not go ahead.

“Instead, it looks like this is going to be just another housing estate,” he said.

Coun Greaves said: “Maybe the planning panel were naive, but we put our trust in the developer.

“In future, we will to have to be more prescriptive in the wording of planning approvals.”

A Skipton Properties spokesman refused to comment to the Telegraph & Argus yesterday.