Developers of a £1.7 million health and community centre in Thorpe Edge yesterday pledged to continue to help revitalise the area.

The Newlands Partnership Board bought the disused site in Rockwell Lane in 2000 as part of its regeneration strategy.

The site, which once had seven blocks of flats on it, now houses a surgery with six doctors, a community centre and a pharmacy.

Newlands Partnership chairman Councillor Bob Sowman said all revenue from the centre would be ploughed back into other community projects run by the Newlands Community Association, which has acted as developer for the centre and will take over the partnership board's work in March.

He said the centre, opened by Housing Minister Keith Hill last month, was a massive boost for the area.

"It's what the community needed," he said.

Jim Smith, chief executive of the Newlands Partnership, said: "We're very proud of Thorpe Edge as an area.

"The regeneration efforts are really working and will continue to do so."

A kitchen run by Brunel Support Service is open every day and is run by people who have learning difficulties.

A self-contained nursery run as part of the Thorpe Edge Community Project, which manages the centre, will open in the new year.

And after Christmas a team of district nurses and health visitors will move in and North Bradford Primary Care Trust will have a base there to co-ordinate health promotion events and activities.

The development is one of a number being worked on by the partnership, which has bought land for a second community centre in Thorpe Edge and a centre in Fagley.

Work is continuing on an 18-bed community hospital on the site of Eccleshill Upper School and work will soon begin on a diagnostic and treatment centre.