PUBLIC consultation is getting underway over the future of Keighley's troubled civic centre.

A Brighouse-based company, Enventure Research, will canvass townspeople for their views on what should happen with the North Street building.

One suggestion already put forward is that the building could once again house a police station, or provide NHS drop-in facilities.

Senior councillors admitted at the annual town meeting – held in the centre – that the consultation, which is costing about £23,000, should have been carried out years ago.

Fierce criticism was previously levelled at the town council after revelations the premises were losing large sums of money.

And the site's police and forensic science museum, shop, cafe and bar had to be shut after doubts surfaced over the legality of trading in the building.

"We are looking to put the decision over the centre to the public," Councillor Michael Westerman, chairman of the civic centre strategy committee, told the town meeting.

"We were criticised for not speaking to the public before about what it wanted in the centre and I apologise for that.

"If we had consulted then, we wouldn't have had to do it now.

"But the past is the past and we want to look to the future."

Consultation forms will be made available at locations across the town and online, and focus groups set-up.