A 19th-CENTURY Keighley mill could be demolished to make way for an industrial development.

Plans have been put forward to flatten the Walk Mills complex and build 12 modern business units on the site.

The mill, situated between the River Worth and the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, once formed a major part of the town's textile industry.

Now Rossendale-based B&E Boys Ltd has applied to Bradford Council to bulldoze the complex and replace it with the new development, which the firm claims will attract more businesses to the town – creating jobs, providing much-needed extra business accommodation and boosting the local economy.

The company says the northern part of the site already operates as an industrial estate, but that the upper floors of the existing buildings are largely unoccupied due to their poor condition.

The southern section is at present an undeveloped greenfield area, but according to the applicant forms a "natural extension" to the established industrial plot.

B&E Boys – which owns the site – says the units would be arranged in 'terraces' and there would be extensive landscaping, including tree and hedgerow planting.

The scheme would provide "high quality" industrial workspace, it says.

"The northern site currently has a variety of tenants occupying different parts of the former woollen mill buildings," a spokesperson adds.

"However, the old buildings provide poor quality, inefficient workspace which is not appropriate to cater for modern business needs. Furthermore, the site and buildings are prone to flooding from the River Worth which causes expensive disruption and inconvenience to the tenants.

"The proposal is to demolish all the existing buildings on the northern development site and replace them with nine high-quality steel-framed industrial units of various sizes to suit different business needs.

"A further three industrial units will be constructed on the southern site, which is also presently prone to flooding.

"The finished floor levels of all the new units will be set to protect the buildings from future floods."

Textile production at the Walk Mills site ended around half a century ago.

B&E Boys applied to demolish the mill and build housing on the site in 2017, but that application was subsequently withdrawn.