A SPECIAL group is to be set up to oversee the spending of up to £1 million in Otley.

The group, which will include members of Otley Town Partnership, will work with regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, over the next four years.

And its aim will be to make Otley the focus for the regeneration of the whole area - taking in places like Bramhope, Menston and Pool-in-Wharfedale.

It could involve the employing of a town centre manager and should pave the way for the continued development of the town and its hinterland for the next ten years or more.

The town, under the Market Towns Initiative, will receive around £300,000 from Yorkshire Forward and the Countryside Agency with the rest expected to come from other organisations - including Leeds City Council - in matched funding.

On Tuesday a meeting of Otley Town Partnership was told the next six months should be taken up putting together a working group. That group should define the area it would be working in and map out its plan of action for the next four years.

David Gluck, from the Countryside Agency, told the meeting that he would expect to see the farming community and young people included.

He would also want to see how the group would plan to stretch into North Yorkshire - bearing in mind that Pateley Bridge would also receive funding under the Market Towns Initiative.

He said: "Our money will bring in far greater resources from other funding places like the city council and the national lottery.

"The £1 million that is generally quoted is the certain amount that we are putting in and the levering of more from other sources."

Councillor Phil Coyne, chairman of Otley Town Partnership, said the partnership should form a major part of the group.

Last year it produced the Otley Town Centre Action Plan - which went a long way to convincing the Government agencies that Otley would be an ideal candidate for funding.

l Key campaigners gathered in Otley on Friday to celebrate the town's windfall.

Harold Best MP and members of the town's chamber of trade, the town partnership group and leading business people proposed a toast in the Market Place.

Mr Best, who lobbied the Local Government Office to secure the funding, said: "This is an excellent example of how people, working together, can improve the future for Otley.

"The Government has shown its commitment to revitalising Otley and its surrounding rural area. Local people can now look forward to improved public transport, the promotion of retailing and programmes to tackle social disadvantage."