A councillor who is part of a campaign to retain a community emergency service at Haworth Fire Station said he was “encouraged” by the response at the latest meeting.

Worth Valley parish council chairmen, councillors John Huxley and Neal Cameron, went to Birkenshaw on Friday to speak to members of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority’s community safety committee.

The pair presented proposals for a scheme to keep the Station Road building running as a volunteer-run community-style emergency centre, even after it ceases operating as a retained fire station at the end of this year.

Commenting on the meeting earlier this week, Coun Huxley, of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, said: “We got a very fair hearing and received a positive response. It was very encouraging for us.”

The Worth Valley Joint Transport and Emergency Committee – which comprises representatives from Haworth, Oxenhope and Keighley councils – was due to meet yesterday.

This committee will consider what was said at Friday’s meeting and decide whether to make any recommendations to the three councils it represents.

Haworth Fire Station was due to be closed as part of a major West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service cost-cutting programme, but protests by residents won a two-year stay of execution.