The derelict Woodhouse and Spring Bank Community Centre is set to reopen in April in a bid to revitalise the area. The building will form a focus for ambitious moves to create a wider 'Hainworth Wood' community.

Residents will be encouraged to organise a range of activities for all ages at the centre on Hainworth Wood Road. They will be supported by Keighley Area Panel worker Rachel West and an 'army' of volunteers over the next nine months. The initiative will draw in residents of the surrounding council-housing estate, Denby Road OAP flats, Wesley Place and terraced housing along Hainworth Wood Road.

People living as far away as Parkwood Rise, Hainworth hamlet and parts of Ingrow will also be welcome to get involved. The Hainworth Wood project grew out of extensive research by Bradford council into the needs of people in the area. Keighley's Single Regeneration Budget agreed to provide cash for a development worker for the next nine months.

The funding is particularly aimed at setting up projects to tackle crime and improve community safety issues. The money is now been split between Rachel's post and Keighley's Prime Movers project for young volunteers.

Rachel will this month begin working with council departments such as housing and cleansing to prepare the community centre for reopening. She will help residents set up a properly-constituted community association which could eventually take over the running of the centre.

It will be able to apply for cash from several funding sources including Bradford council's voluntary sector grants fund. April will see the centre reopen, with the Prime Movers helping recruit interested local people, organise elections and set up activities.

Steve Thomas, a ward councillor, says the Hainworth Wood Project will only work if local residents are involved from the start. "This could be the beginnings of revitalising the area, and I want to see residents influencing decisions about things that can affect their lives," he says. "People in Woodhouse and Spring Bank have been telling me they want the centre re-opened and used by local people."

Anyone who wishes to get involved in the Hainworth Wood Project should phone Rachel West on 618008.

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