COMMUNITY leaders say they welcome the news that next year's Tour de Yorkshire route will again feature large parts of Keighley district.

Both the Worth Valley and South Craven areas will feature in the route for stage four of the cycle race, in May.

The fourth and final 'Yorkshire Terrier' stage, covering 189.5 kilometres from Halifax to Leeds, takes place on May 6.

The route locally will also feature Oxenhope, Haworth, Oakworth and the "Cote de Goose Eye".

Keighley MP John Grogan said: "World class cycling has become almost an annual fixture in the sporting life of Keighley.

"Next year we will also be celebrating 50 years of the restoration of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and I hope many of the spectators will travel on the railway to Haworth, Oakworth and Oxenhope to get the very best views of the action."

The local leg on the last day of the race will see the cyclists head up Haworth's famous Main Street, drop into Goose Eye for the next arduous ascent and then race through Sutton, Glusburn and Cross Hills as they make their way to Skipton.

Councillor Gary Swallow, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council said: "I'm delighted that they've included Haworth in their schedule.

"I think it's great for the village. It brings a lot of people to Haworth and I'll be delighted to welcome them here."

Worth Valley ward councillor Russell Brown said: "We have some great countryside and some very challenging climbs and declines.

"The steep descent into Goose Eye must be pretty scary on a bike!

"Anything that promotes our area is positive. The more people the race brings here the more people are likely to come back a second time to see what we've got to offer in our district."

Cllr Brown added that he hoped to again work with school pupils to help them put together some eye-catching visual displays to install along the route of the race.

Fellow ward councillor Rebecca Poulsen said: "It's nice that the Tour will be coming through three Worth Valley villages, not just Haworth.

"I know a lot of people will be coming out to see the race go past and we should get many visitors to the area too. It should be a very good day."

Cllr Poulsen added her only concern was that Bradford Council still intends to withdraw its funding from Haworth's two public toilet blocks by the end of March, just over a month before the Tour de Yorkshire passes through.

"I'm wanting to try and get a stay of execution for the toilets, because this doesn't seem right," she said.

The 2018 race will also again feature an Asda Tour de Yorkshire women's race.

Following its previous success it is being expanded to two days – May 3 and 4. The women's race stages will follow the last 132km and 121.5km respectively of the men's routes.