A minister will be pressed to get funding for the restoration of vandal-hit Lister's Mill, pictured.

The massive South Wing has stood empty for years as one grandiose scheme after another failed to reach fruition.

Now it is on a register prepared by English Heritage of listed buildings considered to be at risk.

The huge South Wing has been hit by vandalism while Bradford Council tries to find the funds to buy it.

But Yorkshire Forward, the Government's regeneration agency, will not release a grant until it is satisfied a viable use can be found for the building.

Bradford West MP Marsha Singh will press Environment Minister Keith Hill to take action on the historic building.

At an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he will say the building is in a rapid state of deterioration and needs essential work doing.

Mr Singh says there is clearly a "log jam" over funding which needs to be broken.

He will ask the minister to stop the rot and allow a trust set up to manage it to get on with the job.

Mr Singh said: "I am very concerned that every week that goes by this building is deteriorating. It is absolutely vital for something to be done about it."

The South Wing is a largely ramshackle 15 acres of building and bits of land in a rectangle between Lilycroft Road and Beamsley Road, Heaton Road and Patent Street.

It has been on the market since Lister & Co ran into debt and shut down most of the textile operation. Several rooms restored in a 72-hour clean-up by the Manningham Mills Community Association are now used as a youth club.

The North Mill is owned by Haddow Holdings, of Canal Road, and is now used for warehousing and a small amount of retailing.

Started in the 1870s by entrepreneur Samuel Lister, son of a wealthy woolman, the firm employed 7,000 people in its heyday.

The landmark, Italian-style chimney, completed in 1873, is 255ft high, 21ft sq at the base and 20ft sq at the top. Violent riots over pay cuts in 1890 sparked the birth of the Independent Labour Party.

e-mail: olwen.vasey@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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