Campaigners working to have Saltaire declared a World Heritage Site are launching a bid to get the honour bestowed on the 200th anniversary of its founder's birth.

Yesterday the Telegraph & Argus revealed that the Victorian model mill village had been included on a list of 25 UK sites to be nominated for the accolade by the Government.

The site will be officially nominated for consideration to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. Over the next ten years its World Heritage Committee will decide whether it should have the same cultural status as the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China.

Saltaire Village Society, among groups which lobbied for the village to be nominated is calling for the award to be made on September 20, 2003, bicentenary of Sir Titus Salt's birth.

Society chairman Clive Woods said: "We think it would be a fitting tribute and no doubt we could have a banquet like he did in 1853 when he opened Salts Mill.

"Having this specific date to work towards will be a useful way of jumping the queue and we're now going to press the minister to submit Saltaire's case to Unesco so that if we are successful the success will occur during 2003.''

Shipley MP Chris Leslie, who headed a delegation to London to press for the village's nomination, said he would be making Culture Minister Chris Smith aware of the significance of 2003.

The Saltaire Project Team has also set 2003 as its target for moving a 124-year-old statue of Sir Titus from Lister Park to the village.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.