Bingley's famous Five Rise Locks are being well and truly put on the map for tourists.

Following years of grumbling that the locks, one of the town's most well-known landmarks, were inadequately signposted, a new set of brown and white tourism signs have been put up by Bradford Council.

The local authority has spent £700 on the new road signs which will lead motorists towards the Midland Hill car park.

Further fingerpost signs - being installed by the British Waterways Board - will then lead visitors on foot from the car park to the towpath and along to the Three and Five Rise Locks, both masterpieces of canal engineering.

The new tourism-friendly initiative was the idea of the Bingley Town Centre Partnership which has paid a consulting company £7,000 to draw up a report on developing the Bingley Canal Corridor.

The firm - Manchester-based DTZ Pieda - has similar experience of canal projects in Huddersfield, Grantham and Scotland. It is expected to deliver its report within the next fortnight.

Gordon Grist, of Damart, one of the members of the town centre partnership overseeing the scheme, said: "The consultants have talked to people in Bingley and users of the canal and we have already met them and thrashed around ideas.

"Three options emerged, and we will have their draft report evaluating the three options on February 6. It will cover tourism, environmental and leisure aspects. The ideas in the report will not be out of this world because of financial constraints, but they will be interesting and will hopefully take forward that part of the town. At the moment it isn't marketed at all."

David Blackburn, British Waterways manager, said: "One of the first things the consultants did was walk the canal with myself, from Morton Bridge to Dowley Gap. We are sure it's going to be a very useful report for the canal and for Bingley, we are looking forward to it coming out."

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