A businessman is bidding to create a hotel in the heart of Bronteland for those tired of heading for the sun. Hedley Rhodes, 57, who was brought up in Bingley, has already built up a substantial timeshare business in Tenerife's Playa de Las Americas, runs a hotel a few miles away and is planning a second resort five miles along the coast.

Now he is looking to invest up to £2 million in developing a hotel with a similar atmosphere to the timeshare apartments and studios he runs in the sunspot - without the hassle of travelling.

Over the years Mr Rhodes has built up what he describes as a "family" of holidaymakers who return year after year for a Club Olympus holiday. He said: "I am asked, almost on a daily basis, to find somewhere in Britain where they can holiday.

"The Bradford area is central to where my clients come from."

The Civic Trust, which has conducted a study on Haworth's potential as a tourist site, recently unveiled a plan which suggested the Haworth Primary School building at Butt Lane could be turned into a high class hotel. The blueprint also called for a revamp of the Bronte Village car park and setting up a Heritage Economic Restructuring Scheme.

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