Keighley Town Council’s £1.1 million scheme to turn the town’s old police station and courthouse into a civic centre is nearing completion.

Workmen have renovated the run down Victorian building, which stood empty for nearly five years, giving it a new lease of life.

Keighley’s new civic centre is due to open in April and the council hopes a member of the royal family will perform the ceremony.

When opened, the civic centre will house a conference centre, a restaurant, a coffee bar, a police contact point, community advice surgeries, meeting rooms and council offices.

There will be a tourist information centre and a police museum containing a horse-drawn black maria and cells with barred doors, straw mattresses and wooden barrel toilets. Graffiti which prisoners scrawled on the walls of the exercise yard has been retained. Two scene of crime rooms have been created and exhibits include old fashioned microscopes, truncheons and handcuffs.

Writing in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus (7th January, 2012) Clive White reports that residents living in Silsden, West Yorkshire, will be asked to help create a new town plan.

The town council is drawing up the plan to help guide future development in the area.

It has almost completed a questionnaire which is due to be delivered to most properties in Silsden.

A  spokesman for the town council said it was important that residents have their say.

He said: “We want to hear their views, concerns and ideas for making Silsden an even better place in which to live, work and play.”

The plan will provide information for Bradford Council’s district development plan and give Silsden Town Council a chance to influence Bradford’s decisions.

Similar plans have been devised in recent years by Keighley Town Council and several parish councils in the area. The plans identify the priorities of residents on issues such as education, crime and the environment and set out visions for the future.

In neighbouring Steeton, residents’ suggestions for their parish plan led to the council successfully raising £200,000 for a new community centre next to the bowling green.