An historic Shipley fairground is to close at the end of the season.

Alan Breeze, the manager of Shipley Glen pleasure ground, on Prod Lane, has announced he will close the business on September 4.

He and his wife Wendy have been running the attraction, next to Shipley Glen Tramway, for nearly 20 years.

But the land has been used as a pleasure ground since Edwardian times when the first rides were installed to accompany a thriving tea-shop serving visitors to the Glen.

Mr Breeze said: "We have always been on below market rent, and now the owner has decided to put the rent up to what

he described as a more realistic level.

"That extra rent is our profit and we can't afford to keep going. We will definitely have to close. The only way it will change is if the owner changes his mind."

Paul Teale, company secretary for the Teale Brothers, which owns the land, said trade had been dwindling over the last few years, partly due to the tramway reducing its opening hours, changes in the leisure industry and difficulties with a dilapidated aerial glide which he claims had put visitors off.

Mr Teale said the land would eventually be sold but there were no definite plans for it. The land is unallocated

in Bradford Council's Unitary Devel-opment Plan.

Mr Breeze said he hoped to find an alternative site for the fairground in the local area.

Councillor Dale Smith (Wharfedale, Conservative) is a volunteer operator at the tramway.

He said: "I am sorry to hear of the impending closure of the fairground. The Glen Valley is very much a unique community resource.

"The tramway, the kiddies' fairground, the open moor and tranquillity is really what families value most preciously.

"I call upon people to use the facilities while they are there to illustrate there is a demand and a need for them."

Last year the historic aerial glide - which dated back to the 1930s - was pulled down after English Heritage removed its protected status.

The fairground opens between March and September each year.