Keighley firms are rallying to support this year's Keighley Gala and ensure more proceeds can go to local charities.

Leading the pack is Keighley business Harrison and Clough which is sponsoring the gala to the tune of £2,000 to mark its centenary year.

The firm, which supplies builders' and engineers' merchants, is based on Aireworth Road at Stockbridge.

Worth Communications is loaning free mobile phones for gala marshals and Willis Walker Sports is donating trophies for a five-a-side contest.

Keighley Town Centre Man-agement Group is chipping in by funding a brass band performance in the town hall square before the procession.

Delighted gala chairman Brian Hudson says sponsorship in cash and kind will help ensure the June 5 event is a success.

He says: "I'm very pleased local businesses want to help us. It's nice to see them putting something back into Keighley.

"If we get £3,000 of sponsorship it means there's £3,000 less we have to spend on organisation and £3,000 more we can give away."

In some recent years lower gate receipts have led to the gala giving away less money than usual to local worthy causes.

Former Keighley man Geoff-rey Reeday donated £1,000 in 1995 when the gala faced the prospect for the first time of having no money for charities.

Mr Reeday, a former president and long-time gala supporter, left a £15,000 legacy last year to ensure the event survives into the new millennium.

Mr Hudson said then that the bequest would act as a safety net but public support was still vital to the gala's future.

Donations for this year's gala have come thanks to entertainment secretary Jason Patefield who wrote to many local firms asking for support.

A deal with a local publisher will mean gala organisers can print a proper programme for the first time in many years, at no cost to themselves.

Among more than 20 local causes receiving cash last year were the Handicapped Child-ren's Pilgrimage Trust, Keighley Disabled People's Council, Community Transport, uniformed groups and Airedale Hospital appeals.

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