A £1 million expansion of Haworth's Three Sisters Hotel will give Keighley's tourist industry the kick start it needs.

Coach operators are queueing up to book their holidaymakers in at the 45-bedroom extension to the Brow Road hotel, which was given the go-ahead by planners yesterday.

Tour companies have struggled to find accommodation for large numbers in the Bront' village, and Keighley has been losing out to areas where there are hotels with 50-plus bedrooms.

Hotel owner Gerald Hey has also agreed to upgrade the nearby Brow Road-Hebden Road junction as part of the £1 million scheme.

The improvements will slow down traffic, provide a safer road surface for motorists and include better signs for drivers.

Councillors welcomed the boost for the village's economy - four full- and ten part-time jobs will be created - and believe the cash injection will benefit the entire area. The council's leisure boss Barry Thorne said: "This is good news for Haworth and Keighley as well, because visitors will make their way down into the town for shopping.

"This is the biggest investment in Haworth for at least two decades. We will now have the quality accommodation we need."

Residents attending Hawor-th's road safety committee on Wednesday were told by Bradford council representatives that the proposed safety measures to the A6033 Hebden Road/Brow Top Road Junction could only go-ahead if planning permission was granted to The Three Sisters.

Mrs Rose Greenwell, of Cliff Street, who heads the committee working on behalf of the Speed Kills Children Campaign, expressed concern as to when the measures would be put in place if planning permission was granted. She was told by council highways engineer, Simon Moscrop, who attended the meeting it could take up to two years to get the work completed. Mrs Greenwell said: "The council sinks £6 million into repairing the road but it can't afford to do this junction."

A block of flats giving people with mental-health problems the chance to strike out on their own has also been approved by planners. The ten-bedroomed building is next to Woodworth House in Halifax Road.

Residents fears, page 20

, Wesley Place, is intended to teach people with minor mental illnesses to live independently. The centre, the first of its kind in Keighley, will be jointly run by Bradford council's social services department and Brunel Housing Association.

Officials from both groups assured resident's at yesterday's planning meeting that the centre would not be like the former Woodworth House home, which housed drug users and the homeless. Pensioners told councillors their lives had been made a misery over ten years through burglaries, vandalism and verbal abuse when the house was open.

Social services' Tony Moore said the care in the community programme had been successful 'for the majority of people', and that the authority had experience of running similar flats in the district.

Councillors gave the development the go-ahead providing inhabitants are monitored round-the-clock for the first six months and the scheme's success is reviewed at the same time. Planners backed down on their decision to refuse an extension to a Silsden joiner's workshop. Officers had originally opposed the expansion of the five-employee joinery in Brunthwaite Lane, Silsden, but changed their minds after visiting the spot and say it is entirely suitable development in the green belt.

Include cross-reference to other Woodworth House story

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