A famous Yorkshire brewery is believed to have put in an offer to save Ben Rhydding's only remaining pub.

The award winning Timothy Taylor and Co Limited, of Keighley, has confirmed it would 'love' to take over and re-open the Wheatley Hotel.

Closed since last summer, the pub's long-term future was thrown in jeopardy earlier this month when owners Punch Taverns announced they were in talks with a property developer.

Plans from Antler Homes to create 22 properties on the site, which would include converting part of the pub and demolishing the rest, have since been lodged with Ilkley's planning office.

But now campaigners fighting to save their local believe Timothy Taylor's interest could provide a lifeline - especially as part of Punch's case for selling the site was based on it being 'unviable'.

A spokesman for Punch Taverns told the Gazette he could neither deny nor confirm that any offer had been made. "There are no updates on the situation at the moment," he said.

But Andrew Daykin, the Tide Estate manager for Timothy Taylor, was more forthcoming. He said: "Obviously we would love to buy the pub and we would run it as a pub because we certainly think it is viable.

"The problem is that the value a property has as a pub is somewhat different to the value it has as a development site, which is why Punch are selling it.

"We would love a crack at it and are convinced it could make a good living from being developed and operated as a pub.

"At the moment we can neither deny nor confirm that an offer has been made to Punch."

The Save Us Pub (SUP) group, made up of concerned local residents, has already formulated a string of objections which it will lodge against the redevelopment plans.

Chief of those was SUP's belief that the Wheatley could still be run as a successful business at the heart of their community.

Steering group member Sandy MacPherson said: "The very fact that Timothy Taylor is interested shows that this is a complete nonsense for Punch to say that the pub is not viable.

"For us it would be an ideal solution if Timothy Taylor came in and took over the Wheatley, it would be brilliant."

Bradford Environment chief and Ilkley parish ward councillor for Ben Rhydding, Anne Hawkesworth, has been stressing from the beginning that Punch's biggest task would be to get permission for change-of-use for the Wheatley Lane site.

She said: "I have heard unofficially that Timothy Taylor have put in an offer - and that they were stonewalled and it was refused.

"As far as I'm concerned the first hurdle that any developer has to jump there is the change of use, no matter what fancy plans or drawings they submit.

"If you have got a well respected community brewery like this, with all the experience they have of successfully running similar outlets, coming forward saying 'the Wheatley is viable, we would love to buy it and run it', then it proves it is viable.

"I'm not on the planning committee and can't say what difference this will make in their deliberations, but it should have an influence."

Timothy Taylor is a well known brewery which in 2000 was named winner of the Draught Beer Cup at the International Brewing Industry Awards.

The company received a huge publicity boost recently when pop superstar Madonna, being interviewed by Jonathan Ross on BBC1, revealed that she loved traditional ale - and Timothy Taylor beers in particular.