After years of inaction, delays, financial roadblocks and heated debate – some may even say party political hot air – the moment of truth is finally approaching for Otley Civic Centre.

The grand old former Mechanics’ Institute has been in need of major refurbishment and modernisation for a very long time indeed.

And the Grade II listed building, as anyone who has passed it since it closed in May, 2010 knows, is casting an increasingly forlorn shadow while it remains out of use.

The feasibility study just lodged with Leeds City Council – the property’s owners – may just, if its projected figures prove credible, be enough to persuade the local authority to find the money needed to revamp it so it can be reopened.

If so, that would spark a process that would see all of the estimated figures for income and expenditure fully audited.

For a scheme that could cost the city council several million pounds and Otley Town Council, in the form of a public works loan, as much as £600,000, such scrutiny is of course essential.

But if external auditors do indeed agree that a revitalised and fully accessible Civic Centre, operating primarily as a 400-seat entertainment venue, could become self-financing most financial doubts about the building’s future should disappear.

Whether or not a public referendum would, as Otley’s Liberal Democrat group are suggesting, then still be desirable is less clear – especially if it causes further delays to a project we suspect most residents would love to see finally under way.

Horsforth-based university must keep us in the loop

The prospect of hundreds of extra students making their way to Horsforth will no doubt provoke a mixture of feelings among people in the town.

Some will welcome the benefits to the economy which will come from Leeds Trinity University’s plans to increase student numbers from 3,250 to 4,000 over the next ten years.

But there will undoubtedly be others who will feel anxious about the impact of the influx and its effect on local residents.

So it is essential that people in Horsforth, and particularly those living near the Leeds Trinity campus, are kept in the picture about any future developments.

The university has done the right thing by holding a meeting with local people to discuss its plans.

It also intends to hold more meetings in the future and has stressed its desire to involve the local community in all its discussions.

A thriving university is good news for the area but it is essential to work with residents to make sure they are not alienated.