“Our MP Robbie Moore called the latest public meeting of Ilkley Council a joke and then went on to blame those of other political parties for the debacle. A better name would be a fiasco brought about by adversarial party politics which should have no place in issues that concern the whole community. Andy Burnham no less, Mayor of Greater Manchester, has said very recently: “We mayors do our job better when it is place first, rather than party first”.

Our town councillors should leave their party allegiances behind when they attend meetings.

What is needed is consensus, sometimes through compromise, based on listening – to what experts in the field and the local community say. In this case a letter in last week’s Gazette that included some of these experts and also other academics including Professor James Dyke of Exeter University clearly indicate that measures such as the current plan of speed humps will increase pollution in our town.

In that way Ilkley Town Council will have achieved an own goal and spent an inordinate amount of our money in the process. Disgraceful! Please think again or, if you won’t budge, resign and let other more community minded folk take the reins!”

Sheila Wright

Ben Rhydding