ONE of Ilkley's most famous sons put his feet back on home soil and opened the town's new £2million medical centre.

Alan Titch-marsh, who has achieved fame as a television gardener, unveiled a plaque at Springs Lane Medical Centre.

He told guests that he was delighted to be opening the building in what is still very much for him his home town.

He said: "Ilkley is still a very important part of my life. It is not history to me it is very much the here and now."

Mr Titch-marsh also praised the design of the new building.

He told the Ilkley Gazette: "It is stunning. It is such a wonderful space inside, light and bright."

Mr Titchmarsh, who is also a novelist, was watched by his elderly mother, Bessie, a patient at the practice.

Dr Mark French, a practitioner at the centre, joked that it was Mr Titchmarsh's mother who had persuaded her son to attend.

He recalled: "I said tentatively to Bessie, 'You don't think Alan would like to open the centre, do you? Within five minutes she had rung Alan and rung my secretary and said 'he would be delighted to do it'.

Dr French also expressed thanks to the people who had helped to get the project off the ground, including Airedale NHS Trust, Bradford Health Authority and Stringer and Jones architects.

He praised staff and patients for their patience when temporary facilities were in use. He said: "Staff put up with unacceptable working conditions and presented an unflustered appearance to patients when it was far from unflustered behind the scenes."