A new feasibility study will propose transforming Otley Civic Centre into a 400-seat entertainment hub.

A working party has been working on a business plan that it hopes will prove the building could generate income to justify a reopening and cover £120,000 a year running costs.

Full details will not be published until the study, the first stage of that plan, has been submitted to and scrutinised by Leeds City Council – the Civic Centre’s owners – in January.

But Otley Town Council’s cross-party working group said the focus would be on turning it into a large events venue. Town council leader Councillor John Eveleigh (Lab, Ashfield) said: “The study takes a completely new approach to running the Civic Centre, based on the unique feature of the Grade II-listed building, the large upstairs hall-cum-theatre space. For at least 20 years before the building closed in 2010 the upstairs hall was never used to its full capacity.”