Keighley's St John Ambulance unit will not close, brigade bosses have pledged.

South and West Yorkshire commander John Shortland assured a heated public meeting that while the future of the town's HQ needed resolving, the branch itself was not under threat.

He admitted that county bosses had failed to properly convey their thoughts to members and apologised to the meeting, held in the Russell Street HQ. "We have not communicated properly what was in our minds - our concerns are not for the unit but for the state of the building," he said.

"We want St John to have the highest image and best profile we can and these surroundings do not go with a progressive organisation."

Keighley town mayor Councillor Brian Hudson, who called Saturday's meeting, said it had to be conceded that the two-storey premises needed work to bring it up to an acceptable standard. But he said the St John Ambulance had served Keighley "wonderfully" since the 1890s and should not be without an operating base in the town.

It would be out of the question for the organisation's younger members - its junior section, badgers, caters for five to nine-year-olds - to have to travel away from the area for meetings, he added.

He and fellow town councillor Paul Heseltine had met Mr Shortland and Philip Gee, the St John Ambulance executive director for South and West Yorkshire, the previous day to debate the situation.

The two hours of talks had been "quite constructive", said Cllr Hudson.

Options on the table include examining the viability of bringing the existing HQ up to standard and having other groups also use the facilities, or finding another premises to share and selling the Russell Street building.

It was stressed that should the building be sold, proceeds would be ploughed back into the Keighley division.

There was anger at Saturday's meeting about the way in which the organisation's volunteer members in Keighley had been treated. Ian Wilson, a town councillor, accused brigade chiefs of adopting a "bombastic and arrogant" attitude. "You are not listening to anyone - what a stupid way for a charity to act," he said.

Christopher Golding, a recruitment trainer and fundraiser with the Keighley St John unit and a member of its management committee, said people had been in tears at the prospect of the base closing.

"We have had children and adults go out of these premises crying - they have been so annoyed and upset," he said. "We had no alternative but to go public and ask for help."

The removal of St John Ambulance vehicles from the town also provoked criticism.

Mr Gee told the meeting that the fleet needed reviewing.

"We have to modernise and update, and the vehicle fleet is one of the things we are looking at," he said.

"We've got to consider how we use and replace the vehicles."