A Silsden councillor has praised churchgoers for their flower-powered Tour de France project.

Silsden Methodist Church is decorating wooden bike shapes with flowers for a display when the cyclists ride past this summer. Church groups, individuals and families are decorating the cut-outs.

Councillor Adrian Naylor suggested the idea could be expanded to involve the whole of Silsden.

He said the project was discussed at the first meeting of a new group formed to co-ordinate Silsden’s involvement in the Tour.

Group members, who include councillors, townspeople and church representatives, talked about how the project could be developed.

Coun Naylor said: “There were suggestions we could get businesses down the High Street to sponsor a bike each and put them in their windows.

“They were asking whether it could become like a Scarecrow Festival and possibly get the schools to decorate some of the bikes.”

The bike idea was the brainchild of Silsden Methodist Church member William Jowitt, who has cut out about 20 wooden bike shapes using equipment at Keighley’s Fab Lab.