A FIRM has moved into the sprawling St George’s Warehouse in Huddersfield.

But development plans for the remainder of the huge complex, alongside Huddersfield Railway Station, remain stalled.

Yorkshire Energy Services – the Huddersfield-based company that is dedicated to fighting the effects of climate change – has moved into new headquarters in the St George’s Quarter in one of Huddersfield’s landmark buildings.

It has gone into the Grade II listed St George’s Warehouse, which fell into disuse in the 1970s.

The former railway warehouse, thought by culture minister Ben Bradshaw to be a prison when he visited Huddersfield recently, has remained empty since the Seventies and numerous projects to convert the building into shops, offices and a car park have failed ... until now.

Yorkshire Energy Services celebrated its move with an official opening ceremony performed by the Mayor of Kirklees, Clr Julie Stewart-Turner.

Bill Edrich, chief executive of Yorkshire Energy Services, said: "This is a very exciting time.

"We have recently re-branded the organisation and our new office has provided us with an opportunity to restructure and grow the company."

The company is leasing the space from HD1 Developments, the company behind the eventual revamp of the entire warehouse.

But for now, large-scale redevelopment of the massive former railway warehouse, with its distinctive red-brick architecture, remains in limbo.

Kirklees Council has confirmed that despite plans to create a complex of apartments, offices and retail units, the work had yet to be given a start date.

It has been sidelined along with other major development schemes in Huddersfield such as the Queensgate plan and the Spindle Retail Park in Leeds Road because of the state of the economy.

Yorkshire Energy Services have become the first client to move into the refurbished offices, inside the new St George’s Quarter development, on the edge of the site.

As well as providing a new home for Yorkshire Energy Services, the office reception area also forms a ‘drop in’ point for people to call in and get face-to-face advice about how to save energy in the home and reduce domestic carbon dioxide emissions – the main greenhouse gas.

The award-winning Kirklees Warm Zone and RE-Charge schemes are also run from the same office.