A textile firm has sold its former finishing plant for more than £1 million as part of moves to revive the company's operations.

The Worthington Group has agreed contracts for the sale of the empty property in Tunwell Street, Eccleshill, and is planning to turn it into flats.

But it has sparked concern that land for industry across the city is being lost.

The premises have remained vacant since they were last used by staff from the group's finishing company, H Armitage and Co, in 2003.

The Worthington Group owned worsted weavers S Jerome at Victoria Mills, Shipley, which it bought in October 1998 as part of a £7 million package. But a drop in sales forced the factory to close with the loss of 130 jobs 15 months later.

A Bradford Council spokesman said a planning application for the site would be considered.

Sandy Needham, chief executive of Bradford Chamber, said: "While we welcome the interest that all developers are now showing in various sites around Bradford, we also want to ensure that adequate land is retained for commercial use and employment growth.

"If the site is to be developed for residential use then, of course, it is a commercial exercise but it would mean a further loss of allocated land for industrial use.

"Land is at a premium and we would hope that due consideration is given to how and why land is allocated within the process of the Unitary Development Plan."

Former Worthington Group chief executive John Taylor, now a consultant to the firm, said the company had decided to sell the premises after being unable to let them out.

He said: "Worthington was a textile company but because of the downturn in the industry it does not have any manufacturing sites and is a shell company."

Mr Taylor said the Group, aided by the £2.75 million sale of a second site in Macclesfield, would now look to relaunch its manufacturing operations in the North West.

"We have got to find a new direction now and have raised money from the sale of these two properties."