Plans to create a tourist information centre in Saltaire’s famous World Heritage Site will not materialise for at least another year, a councillor has warned.

Shipley Green councillor Martin Love has hit out at the delay in turning the former Salts Mill Dining Room in Victoria Road, into a dedicated tourist centre.

Bradford Council put proposals to Shipley College in 2006 to use the building it owns next to the railway platform for the tourist centre as part of a wider £15million expansion.

The project will also include new college buildings in Shipley and Bolton Woods or Frizinghall.

But a funding bid to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for the whole scheme will not be submitted until late January or early February next year, a college spokesman said.

It will then take at least six months for the college to put in a more detailed application and even more time for the LSC to decide whether to give the scheme full approval.

Coun Love said the delay could mean plans for the tourist centre being delayed until at least 2010.

“It is frustrating,” he said. “We have been waiting for such a long time for Shipley College to get back to us on this and it will be early next year before they even get an application in for funding.

“If the decision goes against them and they don’t get the money, then we are back to square one.”

Short-term alternatives could include creating a smaller centre in either Salts Mill or Victoria Hall. Those schemes could be funded from money made available from the sale of Leeds-Bradford Airport.

Councillor Love said: “We have been asking questions at almost every full council meeting for the past couple of years about what is going on and we keep getting told it is just around the corner but not a lot seems to be happening.”

Ian Durham, head of estates for Shipley College, described the former Dining Room as an “ideal location” for the centre.

He said it could be used by the college’s tourism students.

But he added: “First we have to go through the natural process with the LSC to prove that it is the right thing to do. We will have to find part of the money but, hopefully, they will give us a grant towards our ambitions.”