A controversial Keighley multi-storey car park is set to be demolished.

The Damside building - condemned over the years as a white elephant - will close at the end of this month.

And the prime site, in Oakworth Road, is likely to be sold for redevelopment.

Two tenant companies with offices at the building have been given notice to quit by the summer.

The demise of the car park will close a long chapter of numerous unsuccessful attempts to breathe life into the beleaguered block.

When it opened in 1967, hopes were high that the £170,000 building would help ease traffic congestion in the town and provide much needed parking spaces.

But within weeks concerns were being raised about under utilisation of the site, and it later became a haunt for muggers and glue sniffers.

Until a year ago the car park was run by Keighley-based Fentoncroft Ltd on a 25-year lease from the council, but the company went into liquidation and responsibility for the structure reverted to the local authority.

Trevor Green, the council's business manager for car parks and CCTV, said: "We were going to close Damside last year, but with the plans to temporarily shut the Scott Street car park for refurbishment it was decided to put things on hold.

"Very few cars now use the Damside site, and there are some structural problems. It would be very costly to refurbish the building, and there would be no guarantees it would be any better used at the end of the day.

"The most likely option is demolition and redevelopment of the site.

"It will close as a car park on March 31, and the tenants - a private hire company and lift firm - will be there until the summer when their tenancy agreements expire."

Councillor Simon Cooke, the council's executive member for the economy, said the building was an eyesore.

He added that the razing of the car park, and new building on the site, presented a tremendous opportunity to improve a run down corner of Keighley.

But he stressed that any development - retail, leisure or residential - would have to be of a high quality.

He told us: "Damside has never really worked as a car park.

"A lot of money would need to be spent on bringing the site up to standard, and we would just be throwing good money after bad.

"I feel the best option would be to put it on the market, with the building already demolished or the cost of demolition reflected in the price.

"In the new draft UDP the boundaries of the town centre have been extended and they now include land around Damside, which makes the development options that much broader. It is a key location and has good potential. We need to ensure we get a quality development which will enhance Keighley."