A company planning a £30 million housing and industrial development in Keighley has changed its top management.

The three directors of the Worthington Group PLC, which hopes to build on the former Chatsworth Works site, have resigned.

The departing bosses include Oxenhope man John Taylor, who was acting as Worthington’s local linkman for the Keighley project.

The new directors have announced their intention to continue plans to develop the five-acre site off Dalton Lane, behind Keighley Fire Station.

Worthington was originally a textile company but in recent years, following the decline of the industry, has developed new uses for its premises.

The company last year submitted plans to build a leisure, retail and hotel complex including a cinema at Chatsworth Works, which until last year was home to Merralls Spinning.

The plans were revised last autumn, after Worthington heard about rival plans to build a cinema as part of the Worth Valley Shopping Centre in East Parade.

The new plans involve building up to 200 homes on the Chatsworth Works land, and business starter units on the adjacent site of Keighley College’s former Harold Town annexe.

Buildings on both sites were recently demolished.

In an announcement this month, Worthington Group said that directors John Taylor, Anthony Cooke and Peter Townsend had resigned from the board with immediate effect.

They have been replaced by Douglas Ware, an expert in property, brand management and the management of companies in Hong Kong, and barrister David Simpson.

Mr Ware said he was excited with the opportunities to benefit shareholders by developing the Keighley site.

He added: “A planning application is very close to being completed although the process has been somewhat delayed due to the board changes.”