The Victorian Shipley Glen tramway has been saved at the 11th hour with a £20,000 rescue package from Bradford Council.

As reported in Wednesday's Telegraph & Argus, the historic tourist attraction was facing closure after Mick Leak, who leases the Council-owned tramway, decided to stop running the attraction.

He faced a bill of more than £2,500 for public liability insurance coupled with a 30 per cent annual drop in income every year since 1999 and a fall in visitor numbers.

The new one-year rescue package will help pay for insurance, repairs and some new equipment for the tramway.

A steering group set up last December to discuss the future of the tourist attraction will now apply for charitable status to run the project.

Mr Leak welcomed the news. "The Council has effectively saved the day as an 11th hour gesture. I have said that I will be around for a year or so at least to effect a transfer from what has been a business assisted by volunteers to what will be a charity organisation.

"I think in some ways nothing will change apart from the ability to attract funding for projects with charitable status."

Councillor Anne Hawksworth, executive member for the environment, said the payment was a one-off deal and the tramway must be self financing in the future.

"What we have done here is a rescue package. I don't think there can be any promise of Council funding in the future," she said, "As a charitable trust it can attract Lottery and heritage grants which we as a Council can't. It's a case of partnerships and the Council propping it up and the grants coming along."

As well as protecting the future of the tram, the package was good news for the pleasure ground at the top of the line.

Prior to the announcement, Paul Teale, owner of the pleasure ground, said he was considering selling off the land it stands on for housing.

"It must be safe for at least another year. Once the tramways insurance premium is paid for a year, you know that for the next year you will be secure," he said after hearing the news.

"That will be very good news for my tenants, they depend on the tramway to bring customers in."