Opposition parties are questioning why £4.5m of public regeneration money is needed to support a US-owned space testing centre in Keighley.
Bradford Council’s executive, led by Reform UK, has approved the grant for Space Test North at Providence Park, with York-registered BSC Filters funding the remainder of the £9m development.
BSC Filters is part of US-headquartered group Dover Corporation, which reported revenues of about $8.1bn in 2025.
The project is set to create 50 jobs, with the council’s leadership recently voting through what it described as “precisely the opportunity Keighley should be pursuing”.
However, the investment via a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government grant has prompted scrutiny from councillors across three opposition groups.
Conservative councillor Raph Cohn questioned the public contribution during a meeting discussing the project.
“It’s the size of the grant and the proportion of the investment of 50% – it’s very, very large,” he said.
“I struggle to understand why there’s no wholesale financing of it or at least investor financing.”
He also questioned how much money the council would recover if the project ran into difficulty.
Space Test North would provide specialist radio frequency and environmental testing for space and satellite hardware, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.