Row over centre for abusers

Shoppers have also hit out at the proposal to turn the shop in Cavendish Street, Keighley, into a base for Project 6, a pioneering drug and alcohol misuse agency.

Opponents claim it would be inappropriate in an area where Bradford Council intends to spend £100,000 on restoring the street..

Highlight of the parade is the iron framed glass canopy, which sweeps the length of the shops and was put up in 1910.

Michael Millbank, a member of the Keighley Pride group and boss of the Airedale Shopping Centre, said he was surprised at the plan.

"It seems a highly inappropriate place for Project 6, especially when you consider what a spectacle the canopy will be when it is restored," he said.

"I realise Project 6 is doing a lot of good work but I believe there will be somewhere else in Keighley more appropriate."

Ian Ratcliffe, who runs KTS television services in Cavendish Street, said: "It is not the right location especially when there's a kindergarden nearby - and I would have thought that people using the centre would want some anonymity - not to be in a busy shopping area."

He had delivered 60 signed documents objecting to the plan to Bradford planners.

Project 6 co-ordinator Anne Flanagan said the group's present base in Temple Street was now too small.

"We need something accessible and something large enough to accommodate us and we have consulted with Ann Cryer, police and local health authority and social services," she said.

"We've always got on extremely well with our neighbours in Temple Street and we want the same kind of relationship with the people in Cavendish Street."

Bradford Health Action Zone has provided money to buy the building in recognition of the growing drugs and alcohol problem in Keighley.

Keighley Police community safety officer Sergeant Allan Gee said there had been no problem in Temple Street connected with Project 6 over the last ten years and there was no reason to expect any in Cavendish Street.