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£1million of Keighley Cougars stadium funding redirected to Cavendish Street improvements

Thursday, 5 November 2026 at 18:40

The Towns Fund has previously allocated funding for “public realm and highways improvements” on the Victorian street.

Some of the money earmarked for the rebuild of Keighley Cougar’s stadium will be used to improve one of the town’s historic streets.

In July Bradford Council revealed that £2.25m of Keighley Towns Fund cash earmarked for the rebuild of the Cougars’ Danny Jones Stand would be redistributed.

In a statement in July, the Council’s Reform Executive said despite the funding being allocated four years prior, the club “have not been able to provide sufficient information to demonstrate the viability of their proposed project.”

The money would instead be spent on other schemes in Keighley.

At a meeting of Bradford Council last month Councillor Vaz Shabir (Bradford Independent, Keighley West, asked why the money was pulled from the scheme, and where it would now be spent.

He was told that £1m of the funding would instead be spent on improvements to Cavendish Street in Keighley town centre.

The Towns Fund has previously allocated funding for “public realm and highways improvements” on the Victorian street.

Cllr Shabir said:

“Can the Executive explain the legal and financial justification for continuing to withhold the release of more than £2 million in ring-fenced central government funding awarded specifically for the Keighley Cougars’ Danny Jones Stand redevelopment, and identify the exact ‘alternative projects’ to which this funding is currently being considered or reallocated?”

The response from the Council Executive said:

“£33.6m has been allocated to the Council as the accountable body to spend on Keighley projects under the Towns Fund and one of the potential projects identified in the initial allocation was a proposal to provide funding of £2.1m to Keighley Cougars which was part of a wider programme of community grant schemes.

“All projects are subject to a detailed delivery and viability assessment and despite an extensive dialogue with Keighley Cougars, the Council as the accountable body was unable to receive sufficient assurance within the required timescale to be able to approve this project to proceed.

“The Keighley Towns Fund has since been consolidated into the Local Regeneration Fund and the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirms that decision making on which projects are delivered under this programme is delegated to the Council as the accountable body.

“The decision not to proceed with the Keighley Cougars project was taken by the Interim Strategic Director of Corporate Resources in their capacity as the Section 151 officer in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, Strategic Director of Growth and the Regeneration Portfolio Holder.

“This is in accordance with the governance arrangements for the Towns Fund as previously approved by the Executive.

The Neighbourhood Board has been kept up to date on the due diligence process and was consulted on the recommendations for the proposed reallocation of this funding within Keighley, which is subject to final sign off by the Section 151 officer in accordance with the above governance arrangements, and the beneficiary projects are as set out below:

  • the Community Grants Programme to the Town Centre & Infrastructure Improvements Project, which would enable the full capital works to be undertaken on Cavendish Street (£1 million);
  • the Capital Assistance to Business Growth Scheme, which has a pipeline of businesses wishing to access grant funding for growth and job creation (£1 million);
  • to enable existing Community Grant Recipients to bid for capital grants to support their growth ambitions £0.365m).”

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