TRADERS in Keighley town centre have given their verdict on Bradford Council's progress towards finishing congestion alleviation measures in North Street.

New paving stones have now replaced the worn asphalt pavement along one stretch of the street.

But work is still continuing to widen the street next to the site of the demolished Keighley College building.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council’s executive member for Regeneration, Highways and transportation, said: “The work to ease traffic congestion in the centre of Keighley is progressing well.

"New Yorkstone paving in front of the shops between Town Hall Square and Bow Street has now been completed.

"We understand the concerns of businesses in this area, which is why we made the decision to bring this section of the work forward, so as not to cause disruption during the busy Christmas shopping period.

"The whole project is on schedule to be complete by early next year.”

Paul Howard, manager of Keighley Business Improvement District (BID), said: "The work has caused some disruption, but it hasn't been an unreasonable amount.

"I think they've done a good job on the new paving, and it looks much better than it used to.

"In future we'd like to see them replace some of the older pavement surfaces in the rest of the town centre."

Some North Street shop owners had feared their trade would be badly hit by the work.

But Geoffrey Travers, who runs Personal Ice cake shop with his wife Joanne, said their concerns had not been realised.

He said the three-week period when workers had been operating directly outside their business had actually gone extremely well for their shop.

"We were very worried that people not having access to the parking right outside would have a detrimental effect on us," he said.

"But what our business sells is quite unique, we supply things that no one else does within a 10-mile radius.

"So we found that customers were finding alternative places to park and still coming to us. We had three of the best weeks of trading we've had all year."

He added he and his wife were still waiting to see the longer term impact of the change to parking arrangements on the kerb outside the shop.

"There'll be four or five parking spaces outside for a maximum stay of 15 minutes between 9.30am and 3.30pm Monday to Saturday," he said.

"That should mean people who use those spaces will really only have time to come to the shops right here, rather than park and go somewhere else in town."

Ian Dalrymple, owner of the Dales Deli sandwich and delicatessen, said: "The work did affect us quite a lot while it was going on outside for a couple of weeks.

"But they've done a nice job and the new paving does improve the look of the street.

"We're not sure yet what the parking changes will mean for us, but we hope the 15-minute stay rule will work to our advantage."

Lee Bilbrough, lettings agent at the recently launched new North Street office of Hayfield Robinson estate agents, said: "We opened here at the start of September and the work outside began in that same week.

"But it didn't affect us too much because we don't really rely on walk-in trade.

"I think anything they can do to alleviate traffic congestion is a positive thing, and the new pavement surface does look good."