A DECISION on how to spend the money raised through the sale of a Bingley building has yet to be made – almost four years after the sale.

And a councillor has apologised after yet another delay in handing out the cash.

In 2018, Bradford Council sold the derelict Priesthorpe Annex building on Mornington Road, Bingley, to a housing developer for £220,000. The building has since been demolished and replaced by housing.

It follows years of calls for something to be done with the crumbling former college building, which was held by the Council in a trust.

A condition of the trust was that the building could only be used for the benefit of education and training for Bingley’s residents.

When deciding to sell the building, the Council said proceeds of the sale would be placed into a trust – the 1887 Alfred Sharp Educational Trust – and distributed to educational groups in the Bingley area.

But work to establish that charity, and decide the best way to distribute the cash, has progressed at a glacial pace.

On Thursday, the Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee met as trustees, and was due to decide what model to use to distribute the money in future.

But the meeting ended with no decision – councillors decided to adjourn the decision to a future meeting after raising concerns there were no legal officers present to advise them.

Councillors were presented with a number of options for distributing the money. These include creating a Community Chest, which would award local groups grants on a quarterly basis, and a Transformation Fund to help local groups become more sustainable.

Several members of the current committee were not on the committee when the trust was proposed.

Two Bingley Councillors attending the meeting, Councillor Marcus Dearden (Lab) and Councillor Geoff Winnard (Cons), ended up having to instruct members about the background to the trust.

Cllr Winnard said: “There has been a real frustration in the town that it has taken over three years to set up this charitable trust. Bradford Council is an area of some suspicion in Bingley, and this situation doesn’t help.”

Members of the committee said legal officers should have been present at the meeting.

Chair of the Committee Councillor Taj Salam said: “I sincerely apologise to officers and other Councillors, but I’m uncomfortable making a decision without a legal team here.”

He adjourned the decision to a future meeting, where the committee said legal officers must be present.