TWO buildings that sandwich a long established Keighley pub will be demolished as part of a £10 million retail development.

On Thursday Bradford Council granted planning permission for a new retail development, anchored by an Aldi, in Keighley town centre.

The development will be built on a long empty site off East Parade, and listed in the numerous conditions for the approval involves the Cricketers Arms, a pub on Coney Lane dating back to the 1840s.

Currently the Cricketers is between two buildings, one part demolished and the other an empty four storey warehouse building that towers over the pub.

A condition of the planning approval is that the two industrial buildings are demolished, and that work is done to strengthen the walls of the Cricketers so it remains in place.

It will mean the pub will go from standing between two buildings on a long neglected street to being on the doorstep of one of the biggest regeneration schemes in Keighley’s recent history.

The pub was originally known as the Sportsman until Keighley brewery Timothy Taylor’s purchased it in 1872 and changed it name.

It was then taken on by Worth Inns in 1998.

£10 million development for Keighley town centre, including new Aldi, is approved

The development, submitted by Aldi, will see the discount supermarket moving from its current site on Gresley Road into a larger unit. There will be a drive thru coffee shop on the Gresley Road side of the site, three small shops facing onto East Parade and another retail unit, the largest building on the site, on the Coney Lane side of the development, next to the Cricketers.

A staff car park will be built the other side of the Cricketers pub.

There will also be improved pedestrian links from the site to Coney Lane and East Parade.

The site was once earmarked for the Aire Valley Shopping Centre - a long stalled development that would have included shops, restaurants and a cinema.

After years of no movement on the site, Aldi submitted their plans for the development early last year. At Thursday’s meeting Will Brook, representing Aldi, said the hope was for the food store to open in 2022.

On the Cricketers he assured the committee: “The proposal is for it to stay, and we are in discussing with the owners about the plans. The other buildings will come down as part of the application.”

He said the demolition would be carried out in a way that the pub would not be damaged.

He told the committee that the development would be one that “Keighley can be proud of.”