WORK is scheduled to start later this year on a £135 million clean-energy complex in the district which will create nearly 500 jobs.

A two-strong partnership of companies has been appointed to deliver the massive scheme, earmarked for a currently derelict site at Marley, Keighley.

French giant CNIM is producing the plant and construction will be carried out by the Scunthorpe-based Clugston Group.

Two plants for recycling waste will be built on the derelict former gasworks site in Airedale Road, alongside the Aire Valley trunk road.

The initiative will also include an education and visitor centre, plus an office building, parking and landscaping.

And a data-storage centre and offices are to be built on land in nearby Dalton Lane.

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Already-processed commercial and industrial waste will be brought to the plants, whose total output will be equivalent to 90 per cent of the electricity needed to power all Keighley households .

Agent John Steel, of JO Steel Consulting, said an amended planning application to one approved last year was being submitted to Bradford Council this week.

A tyre crumb melting plant which formed part of the original project is now being omitted due to space constraints on the site.

But Mr Steel – who said there were also two other statutory requirements to be fulfilled – hopes that provided everything is completed satisfactorily, contractors will move onto site around October.

"We still have statutory processes to go through – including obtaining a permit from the Environment Agency to operate the plant and completion of highways matters – but I am absolutely delighted that things are progressing as they are," he said.

"CNIM and Clugston as a partnership have carried out a number of these schemes and have an excellent track record.

"I have visited one of their construction sites at Cross Green and a completed operational plant in Lincoln and I was hugely impressed. The quality of what they produce is first class."

During the construction period of the Keighley project, expected to be two-and-a-half years, about 300 jobs will be created.

Once the complex is fully operational, which is scheduled for 2019, over 170 jobs will be generated.

Applicant behind the initiative is the Halton Group, which has formed a special company – Endless Energy Ltd – to deal with the venture.

Keighley's Tory parliamentary candidate, Kris Hopkins, welcomes the fact the scheme is nearing realisation.

"It is more excellent news for Keighley's economy that this major project is on the verge of getting under way," he said.

"It comes with the promise of a very large number of jobs and I particularly welcome the inclusion of an education centre."

The town's Labour candidate, John Grogan, said: "Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy and this new plant in Keighley will produce almost as much energy as the town consumes from the National Grid.

"I hope in the coming years we can attract more similar-sized investments which will bring skilled and well-paid jobs to the area."