More than 2,000 people have signed a petition pleading for Bradford Council to save a community training centre from closure.

Campaigners fighting to save the Beacon Enterprise Centre in Buttershaw have delivered the petition in an effort to force the Council to rethink its decision to refuse the centre a grant.

And today Councillor Ralph Berry (Lab, Wibsey) said the loss of Beacon would be a devastating blow to the Buttershaw community.

The centre has provided activities and training for unemployed people on the estate for more than two decades, helping hundreds of them to find jobs.

"This is one of the most successful and effective training and support schemes anywhere," said Coun Berry.

"This decision is going to pull the rug from under this community. I have never had so many letters about a single subject before."

He claimed the regeneration of the Buttershaw area under the Royds Community Association would not have come about without the support of the Beacon Centre.

"There are so many people who have gone from having no aspirations whatsoever to having successful, paid employment thanks to the centre," he said.

"If this scheme is not the kind of thing we should be encouraging to tackle social exclusion, then I don't know what is.

"The suggestion that other groups can provide these services is missing the point entirely."

A Bradford Council spokesman said the centre's application for cash had failed due to "changes in the commissioning system for voluntary sector grants."

"However, the Council has given the centre transitional funding of £15,000 so that people currently on courses can finish their training," he said.

"We are continuing to work with Beacon and other organisations in the area to protect services and to try and minimise any further disruption to their clients."

But Coun Berry claimed the decision had been made "behind closed doors".

"I am extremely angry because no one has said on what grounds this decision has been made," he said.