TWO companies have signed new deals over office space in a mill once used for filming TV shows Emmerdale and Heartbeat.

Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, between Bradford and Leeds, has become home to graphic design agency ICM Creative and existing tenant, SCRAP Centre of Creative Reuse, has signed a new five-year lease at the mill complex.

During the past seven years the multi award-winning Sunny Bank Mills has been transformed into a modern office complex and is now home to more than 70 companies, who employ a total of 355 staff.

ICM Creative, which specialises in design for print, brand creation, packaging, point of sale, exhibitions and online. has moved into newly-refurbished offices at The Mending Rooms in the complex.

While SCRAP, which has been at Sunny Bank Mills for five years, will continue at its Spinning Mill base.

ICM Account Director Caroline Murray said: “We are thrilled to become a part of this vibrant creative space in the Yorkshire village of Farsley.

"The newly refurbished office will allow ICM to grow and expand and provides our team (existing and future) with an exciting place to work."

She added: “This is a fantastic base to work from. It’s wonderful to be surrounded by so many creative businesses in the heart of Farsley and an ideal location from which to visit our clients and for them to visit us."

Louise Lucas of SCRAP said that since the move to Farsley, the SCRAP store's footfall had grown significantly.

"This means we have become a self- sustaining social enterprise no longer reliant on funding. Five years ago we employed just two staff members and now, in 2019, we have seven staff members, six freelancers regularly working with us on our range of events and activities, and seven volunteers."

She added of the move five years ago: "We had been working with Leeds City Council Early Improvement Team for many years to try and find a shared space for delivering their training in inspiring and creative surroundings so the Spinning Mill certainly ticked all the boxes for us and our future partnership."

The mill complex's new lease of life has been highlighted as a case study of best practice in a report “Engines of Prosperity”, on the conversion and regeneration of West Yorkshire’s textile mills prepared by Cushman and Wakefield on behalf of Historic England.

John Gaunt, joint managing director of Edwin Woodhouse, the owners of Sunny Bank Mills, said: “These two deals underline the versatility and flexibility of space at Sunny Bank Mills, which is attracting an exciting breadth of occupiers. They also illustrate the strength of the Yorkshire economy, with both companies having the confidence to commit their future to us at Sunny Bank Mills.”