A new improvement company could be formed to help rejuvenate business in Keighley.

Chairman of Keighley Town Centre Management (KTCM) Cllr Andrew Mallinson wants businesses and Keighley Town Council to support the formation of a town improvement company.

The company could later help to create a business improvement district and shape the future vision of the town.

Cllr Mallinson said: "Early next year we will bring together as many businesses, who want to join, and ask what is the vision of the town and where do we want to go.

"If businesses do not want to get involved we will stay where we are and then Keighley will go backwards.

"Keighley used to have that perception of being somewhere to come on a Friday or a Saturday night and have a punch-up. We could easily slip back and become stagnant again."

He pointed to the success in improving the town centre environment made by KTCM over the last decade.

The end of the Single Regeneration Budget funding, which employed a town centre manager, the lack of other public funding and the formation of a new Chamber of Trade, caused the KTCM to rethink the best way forward for the town.

Cllr Mallinson said the improvement company could make a number of impacts in the town, including supporting the district's 20/20 Vision, attracting investment and new businesses, linking with other economic and tourist groups and forming the base for a future business improvement district.

"The first thing is to bring all the businesses together," he added.

"We are all isolated. We come to work in the morning and at the end of the day we go home. If we came together as a voice we could go to Bradford Council and ask questions, such as how often the bins are emptied and how many times we have wardens.

"We could then actually pay to go above that baseline service."

He also pointed to the success of similar schemes in places such as Hull and Plymouth, where the BID process had an annual expenditure in excess of £500,000.

Cllr Mallinson also suggested Keighley Town Council should take a leading role in launching the scheme.

He said: "The town council could easily take a huge leading role in the investment company. At the end of the day it would be an office and a member of staff co-ordinating all this.

"It is all the little bits that will make it all work. It could then also benefit the town council in its other events in the town centre."

A seminar organised in July to outline the process of setting up a BID was cancelled after only a handful of the 450 businesses invited showed an interest.