Construction is set to start on a £4 million eco-friendly enterprise centre in Eccleshill, Bradford.

Work is scheduled to begin in January on the community hub after Newlands Community Association was given permission to press ahead with the scheme by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

Planning permission was granted to the community group to build the centre on a three-and-a-half-acre brown-field site behind Eccleshill Community Hospital, off Harrogate Road, in April.

Full funding has now been secured for the project and it is expected to open in September 2011.

The association is currently based at the Holybrook Centre, in Eccleshill. Its new base will be built of straw bales – the largest of its type in Europe – and 14 separate managed workspaces each covering 15,000 square feet.

The centre’s design includes 3ft thick walls, a ground-source heat pump and a rainwater reservoir to supply toilets and water plants.

Money for the scheme comprises £1.019m from the European Regional Development Fund, £1m from the Communitybuilders Fund and £990,000 from Bradford Council’s Government-funded Local Enterprise Growth Initiative. The association has also secured a £1m mortgage from the Charity Bank.

Tony Holdich, the association’s business manager, said: “In this period of recession and bad news across the country we are investing £4m in East Bradford.

“It’s a mainly residential area so we are talking about putting something in that’s going to benefit a lot of people and will encourage new businesses to get started in our business park.”

Discounted rates will be offered to new start-up businesses.

Mr Holdich said: “We have built into the business plan what are called incubator units. Start-up businesses will be offered a unit at a quarter of the market rate for the first quarter, increasing throughout the year to give them time to build their businesses up.”

Not-for-profit organisations which are existing tenants of the Holybrook Centre will relocate to the new centre. They include the Snoop project, Mencap, Happy Associates, the Play Network and Bradford District Care Trust.

The development will take 36 weeks to build and will still leave half of the site available for expanding the business park in the future.

Mr Holdich said: “Our ambition is to become the community anchor for Bradford East.”