Small businesses in north Main Street, Bingley, are to get a boost after planning officers recommended approval of plans for a new car park containing spaces for up to 60 cars.

Bradford & Bingley Building Society intends to lease the former Woolworths site which contains a variety of vacant shops, cleared land and derelict buildings to the council for use as a temporary car park.

After four years the scheme will be reviewed for possible retail usage such as restaurant, takeaway and convenience food store though the B&B's direct involvement will be minimal.

Shipley MP Chris Leslie welcomed the news saying the development could only be of benefit to that side of town. He said: "I want to see it open as soon as possible in order to help regenerate that end of town. It will help businesses there such as the many antique shops by giving their customers access to a car park.

"It is extremely generous of the B&B to develop this scheme and is a good example of what the Bingley Town Centre Partnership can come up with.

"I am also glad that in the meantime, while we don't have the relief road, we can have the car parking and the opportunity to have more breathing space for customers to get out and move about.

"It will be a useful experiment and my own view is to give it a go as a car park."

He said most of the buildings to be demolished were not of any great value though one of them had a rather unusual archway.

He added: "They are derelict and none of them is listed or anything like that."

A spokesman for the B&B said the scheme dated back to March 1997 when talks were started with Bradford Council.

A decision was taken to help the regeneration of the north end of Main Street.

He said: "We are paying for the demolition and preparation of the land and the council for the resurfacing. I would say that if all goes to plan our work will be done before Christmas."

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