Babies in Africa will benefit from Silsden’s involvement with the Tour de France.

Parents will receive yellow jerseys for their newborn babies after competitors ride through the town.

Members of local churches are knitting the jerseys to hang across Silsden’s main street as bunting.

The project, the brainchild of Silsden’s Churches Together group, will see the cyclists riding under the jerseys.

Chris Atkinson, the town mayor, said the project would create a legacy that Silsden could be proud of.

He said: “I am thrilled that one of the first initiatives to promote the Tour de France will have a lasting legacy.

“The knitting pattern has been amended to make the jerseys a little bit longer so they will fit new-born children.”