Keighley's mayor has attended a ceremony to mark the start of a £65 million project to build homes on the site of a former mill.

Construction work started yesterday on the long-awaited Grove Mills development - hailed as the most ambitious redevelopment the town has seen.

Town mayor Brian Hudson and Brian Verity, managing director of developers Skipton Properties, celebrated the landmark moment by making the initial dig into the ground where the foundations to the site's first houses will be built.

The development is set to transform the disused mill site into a riverside complex of two, three and four bedroom townhouses, a studio, and one, two and three bedroom apartments.

Preparation work has included building new roads, the strengthening of Ingrow tunnel and raising the height of land to south of the development by four metres.

Councillor Hudson said: "This is a landmark moment for Keighley as it marks the start of building on the most ambitious ever redevelopment in the town.

"It represents a huge re-birth of the area and the regeneration of Grove Mills is of a size and scale that will hopefully act as a catalyst throughout the Worth Valley, paving the way for other regeneration schemes and providing a real boost to confidence in the area."