Shock figures show that Keighley’s controversial civic centre is more than £162,000 in the red.

The shortfall is more than double the amount published just three months ago.

This week Keighley Town Council, which runs the North Street building, came under fierce fire for its handling of the centre.

And the town’s MP, Kris Hopkins, is demanding that the public be given answers.

In February, town councillors approved a massive 72.6 per cent hike in precept, partly to help fund the ailing project.

Mr Hopkins said yesterday: “I have long argued for greater transparency with regard to the town council’s accounts so that local residents can more fully appreciate the level of debt inflicted upon them.

“Some councillors have been living in a state of denial, but the public needs to understand the consequences of the decisions these individuals have taken because it is the public which will have to pay for them. The 72.6 per cent precept rise is the shocking proof of this.”

He added: “I believe it is high time for the council to convene an urgent meeting to explain to local people how it intends to address the debts incurred, and I am very happy to work with it on this.”

Coun Glen Miller, the Tory group leader on Bradford Council, said that “from day one” he had advised against the civic centre project.

“I do not think it’s fair the millstone of debt that has been put around the necks of Keighley taxpayers,” he added.

The civic centre, in Keighley’s former police station, has been dogged with controversy since it opened in April last year. It was bought using a £1.1 million loan and critics were assured the premises’ tenants would cover the costs.

Earlier this year it emerged that the centre was £74,000 in the red.

Information which came to light this week through a member of the public suggested the current shortfall was an enormous £270,789.

But that figure is strongly refuted by the town council. It said the actual deficit at the last financial year end was £162,576, which included several one-off payments such as for an alarm system and the setting-up of a forensic science centre.