A children’s charity that once operated a go kart track at the scene of today’s massive fire has pointed out that it took “everything” it owned with it when it vacated the site 18 months ago.

The intense blaze, which is still burning tonight at a site in Spring Mill Street, near Mill Lane junction at the throat of Bradford Interchange, is said to involve a large number of ‘scrap tyres’, according to the fire service.

OnTrak Community Initiative, which used to run the go kart track, has pointed out that the tyres had not been left at the site by them.

Natalie Kershaw, from OnTrack, said the children’s charity works closely with 17 local authorities throughout the UK, and with West Yorkshire Police delivering different programmes for young people.

“We have been rigorously vetted to do this work including the track side of our programme,” she added, saying they could not get away with so much as a chunk of chewing gum on the track let alone thousands of tyres.

She told the T&A: “Firstly, OnTrak Community Initiative is a children's charity who uses a go karting track as part of its educational programme. We work closely with 17 local authorities throughout the UK, and with West Yorkshire Police delivering different programmes for young people including county lines and gun and knife crime. I say this because we have been rigorously vetted to do this work including the track side of our programme. We could not get away with a chunk of chewing gum on the track.

“Secondly, OnTrak rented the karting track from Jaq Yaqoob until last year when we sadly had to close the site due to a number of break ins. We have not been on the site for 18 months. To add to this, when we left the site, we took EVERYTHING with us that belonged to the charity.

“Any tyres that we used were for the karting barriers as per the NKA legal requirements, and any spare were upcycled by our students and young people to create plant pots, unique tables and chairs. We have examples in our workshop which you would be more than welcome to see. The rest were donated to community projects including the fruit trees that were grown in these handmade tyre pot plants - we can get many statements to prove this. To add to this, we have pictures of how the site was left.

“Just to make it absolutely clear: OnTrak has nothing to do with any tyres on that site as we removed everything that belonged to us 18 months ago.”