Plan for health hub in Keighley town centre to progress, despite petition

Over 1,900 people had signed a petition calling for a plot of land on the corner of North Street and Cavendish Street to remain as green space.

The current plan for the Bradford Council owned site is for a health facility – which would include GP, dental, midwife and mental health services, to be constructed on the site.

Negotiations are underway with the NHS Airedale Trust, who would occupy sections of the building, and West Yorkshire Police – who have expressed interest in opening a town centre station within the development.

The site was home to Keighley College, but was purchased by Bradford Council in 2006 using a £4.1 million grant from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

The old college buildings were demolished, and a temporary green space has been created on the site.

The petitioners called for the health hub plans to be scrapped, and for the site to remain a green space. It had support from Keighley MP Robbie Moore.

The petition was discussed by members of Bradford Council’s Executive on Tuesday morning.

None of the petitioners attended the meeting.

A rival petition, calling for a new health hub on the site, has been signed by 2,800 people.

A report to members said the agreement with Yorkshire Forward that the £4.1m relied on was that the site would be used to “further the economic development of Keighley”, promote investment or employment, boost skills or “achieve sustainable development.”

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Ben Middleton, Assistant Director of Estates and Finance, told members that using the site for any other reason would be in “default” of the deal. He said it would mean the Council had taken money with the promise they would use it for one purpose, but in fact use it for another.

A report to the Executive said any use of the site would need to be approved by Homes England – the body that Yorkshire Forward became.

It said the Council wrote to Homes England to ask if the public green space would fall into any of these categories, and Homes England responded in September.

The report added: “Homes England would be unlikely to support the Council bringing forward a public open space scheme at the property. This action would likely be treated as an event of default and would entitle Homes England to follow the termination mechanism under the funding agreement and pursue against the Council the various remedies available.”

Mr Middleton told the Executive that these “remedies” could include ordering the Council to sell the land to Homes England for £1 or put the site on the open market – and give any money from the sale to Homes England.

They could also “claw back” some or all of the £4.1 million they gave the Council to buy the site.

He said: “The Council is not free to do with this site as it wishes given our contractual obligations. Any change of use requires the discretion of Homes England.”

Councillor Julie Glentworth (Cons, Keighley West) supported the petition, and said: “The residents of Keighley would like to know if we did have a medical hub, could we locate it somewhere else, maybe closer to the bus station, and leave this space for recreation?

“We think the hub is a good idea, but where you want to put it doesn’t make sense to them – they don’t feel the site is in the centre of the town.

“I have to agree with them. People with a disability would have an awful job to get to this health hub.”

Cllr Hinchcliffe said: “We’ve already heard that keeping the site as it is is impossible – it is not a choice we have.”

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Councillor Alex Ross Shaw, Executive for transport, planning and regeneration, said: “If you get to the bus station you just have to cross Cavendish Street. It is pretty accessible.

“This is a scheme we have been talking about for some time. We’re working to get the best for Keighley – that is what this is about. You have to look back and look at what the benefits are for Keighley.

“This is about bringing national best practice into Keighley – state of the art facility for residents.

“I would consider this as the town centre. It will consolidate 200 jobs into the town centre – 50 of those will be new jobs.

“We understand the passion of people with different views of the site, but there has also been a separate petition in favour of the plans signed by over 2,000 people.

“We need to be honest about the situation. This is a long standing plan for the town centre, and Homes England have made pretty clear their view that this long standing agreement for the site still stands.”

Cllr Hinchcliffe said: “The petition came out of a love of Keighley. We also love Keighley and want to support it by increasing footfall for local businesses and making sure people there have great health facilities on their doorstep.”

The hub plan will be part funded by the Government’s Towns Fund. It is one of seven projects in the town to share £33 million in funding.

The Towns Fund Board, made up of local politicians, community groups and business leaders, has nine months to put forward a evaluation and plan for the health hub.

At a meeting of the Board last month if any other sites for the health hub were under consideration.

Although the Board meetings are not public, minutes from the meeting say Mr Moore was told: “While the Trust could theoretically work with another town centre location in the Keighley area, if a decision was made to consider a different site it would mean having to purchase a site from a third party; this would involve additional cost and risk; it would also risk losing the grant funding due to time constraints (i.e. we would not get any grant money and would need to purchase a site) and realistically would render the project non-viable.”