PLANS to turn an empty unit in Keighley town centre into a micro-pub have been approved by Bradford Council.

14 Low Street was home to a pay day loan company until February 2019. Earlier this year Adam Hirson submitted a planning application to change the use of the ground floor unit into a 42 square metre micropub.

The building has a prominent spot on the pedestrianised street - which has entrances to Keighley Market and the Airedale Shopping Centre, and faces onto a public square.

There had been four letters of support for the plans, praising the investment in the town centre, and one objection - which claimed a pub was not a suitable business for the "quiet shopping area."

Popular pub will remain in place as part of a £10m development, despite proposals to demolish the buildings either side of it

But planning officers said: "The new use will facilitate bringing a prominent, unused building back into use and would help to diversify and support the overall function of the town centre."

The building is in the Keighley Town Centre Conservation Area, and Heritage and Conservation officer Simon Hinchcliffe said: "It is good to see empty property in the conservation area being brought back into sustainable usage."

A licensing application for the unit, by Yorkshire Tap (Keighley) ltd, has also been submitted to Bradford Council

The scheme is the latest town centre bar to be approved in Keighley.

Plans for a new craft beer and gin bar on Scott Street were approved last month, and in recent years applications have been granted for two micropubs on Cavendish Street, and a bar at the Victorian Arcade on Low Street.