A new £850,000 abstinence centre to help treat up to 120 drug addicts is being unveiled today.

The Unity Recovery Centre is the brainchild of the Bridge Project, which helps those with drug addictions.

Lord Mayor Councillor Naveeda Ikram is due to open the Manningham Lane unit, formerly the home of the Christian Science Church, at lunchtime.

It is one of only a few treatment centres where addicts can be treated in the day without moving them miles away to a full-time residential unit.

Councillors, representatives from NHS Bradford, probation workers and senior health professionals were due at the launch where Newcastle University’s Professor of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Professor Heather Ashton, is due to give a speech.

Jon Royle, the Bridge’s chief executive, said the centre had been in creation for the past two years.

He said: “What makes this centre unique is that in the past those who wanted to be completely abstinent often had to go away to traditional residential rehabilitation units 100 or so miles away.

“Some people can benefit from that. But there are others trying to come off drugs who have families and ties to Bradford, and they do not need to go to these very expensive residential units." Fourteen staff will run the centre with up to 20 recovery volunteers, who are former addicts.

* See the full report in today's T&A.