Health chiefs are forging ahead with plans to build a new health centre on the site of a disused Keighley car park.

The multi-storey Damside car park would house a GP surgery, dentists and specialist services such as out-patients, X-ray and minor surgery.

All services at the present ageing Keighley Health Centre, in nearby Oakworth Road, would move into the complex.

The next-door Holycroft GP surgery would also move, along with new patient services and administrative staff.

Airedale Primary Care Trust (PCT) last week submitted an outline planning application to Bradford Council for its "primary care centre". Detailed plans will be drawn up over the next few months after people are consulted on what they would like to see in the building.

Funding will come through a partnership of private and public sectors, as part of the district's new Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT). The PCT says it has worked closely with Bradford Council, which owns Damside, to secure the site after the car park's demolition.

David Riley, the PCT's director of corporate development, said the new centre could be as high as three storeys and must be big enough for future expansion.

He said: "We're looking at putting as many clinical services into the new centre as we can for the Keighley population. The new building will occupy the whole of the current car park footprint. It's an ideal site, close to the bus station and bus routes."

The LIFT scheme will see ageing and unsuitable buildings across the district replaced with new purpose-built health developments.

Mr Riley said the overcrowded present Keighley Health Centre was designed to last 25 years but was now more than three decades old.