Fun family activities and bus service improvements will accompany the opening of the new Keighley bus station next month.

Construction work on the £3 million station is due to be completed by the end of this month, in time for an official opening around February 10.

All Keighley bus services will move from surrounding streets into the state-of-the-art station so passengers can board from the covered concourse.

Family attractions are now being planned by Keighley Town Centre Management to coincide with the opening.

The project sees the third major change to the station since it was first used by buses in the 1920s.

It became the site of Keighley's first purpose-built station in 1940, then in the mid-60s the adjacent shopping centre and multi-storey car park were built.

Work on the new station began last May along with changes to the road layout to allow access from Cavendish Street and exit on to North Street.

The new station offers a single covered concourse with toilets, shops, a travel centre and improved information including electronic departure details.

Buses will drive in, collect passengers then back out, keeping away from pedestrians, who will enter the concourse from the Airedale Centre side.

Security cameras are being installed to cover both the concourse and the surrounding Bow Street and Towngate shopping frontages.

Keighley and District Travel, which runs most local buses, will ensure its six-monthly changes to local services coincide with the bus station opening.

Spokesman Graham Mitchell says "considerable improvements" are planned for some services, starting on February 10, as well as the removal of bus starting points from surrounding streets.

"That's a move we're profoundly looking forward to. We don't want to stay on the streets a day longer than necessary," he says.

"It's a situation the people of Keighley have taken to stoically. They've been tremendously good, staying with us and putting up with sub-standard conditions.

"We're eagerly looking forward to moving into the new bus station. From what we've been told it will be a super place."

The new bus station will be run by Metro, which oversees all bus and train services in West Yorkshire.

Keighley and District Travel, which ran the old bus station, will have an inspector's office in the new concourse and will still run the travel centre.

The bus firm now has its permanent offices in Cavendish House, the former home of the Halifax Building Society at the bus station entrance.

In a brochure - loaned to the Keighley News by Speaks - announcing the town centre redevelopment in the 1960s, a section referred to the new Corporation bus terminus.

It said: " It is interesting to note that the Keighley and West Yorkshire Services ltd., who provide the principal bus services in and around Keighley, bring passengers into the town centre from no fewer than 37 outlying districts all within a 13 miles radius.

"Each year there are approximately 245,000 vehicle departures from Keighley bus terminus."