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Newsletter


FEBRUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER

Programme

Our meetings are as follows. In addition, there are monthly Local History Hub Meetings on Saturday afternoons either face to face or on Zoom and weekly sessions at Ilkley cemetery. All details can be found on ICS website.

The Christmas Heritage Walk, on 28th December, was an extremely wet affair! Some 17 brave people turned up to explore Ben Rhydding in heavy rain reaching the Wheatley Arms for coffee as soon as they opened.  We will repeat this walk during next summer’s series, hopefully with better weather.  Hope you have dried out by now!

Face-to-face meetings are held at 7.30pm Church House, Ilkley

Thurs Feb 15 Please note the change of date.

 Local Issues   - Zoom     Members are invited to join in discussion about local issues of interest including the current Bradford Council consultations.  What ICS should be doing about them? Please let us know what you would like to talk about.

Thurs Mar 28 Meeting 5 30pm Design & Conservation Awards Church House. Guest speaker to be announced.

Sat Feb 2.45pm Ilkley’s 1860s transformation Zoom

Thurs Apr 25 AGM & talk: Ilkley Bid - Helen Rhodes Church House

Sat 27th April 2.45pm Walk – Meet at the Manor House to explore East Holmes Field, the New Bridge and Lido.

Sat 25th May 3pm  Meet at the Manor House to visit the exhibition on the Ben Rhydding Hydropathic Establishment in the Western Gallery.

Friends of Ilkley Cemetery – continue to meet each week for an hour or so of light gardening and litter picking and chat in Ilkley Cemetery, weather permitting. If you are interested in getting involved then please email Jan Stallworthy on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

AGM

We are in need of new people on the executive committee including Chair and Treasurer. If you are interested, please contact any member of the committee.

 

 

Railway Ticket Office Consultation

We commented on the proposal to close the Rail ticket office at Ilkley, leaving only Journey Makers and ticket machines in place. The powers that be appear to have listened to the thousands of objections and the proposal appears to be off the agenda for the time being.

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Local History Hub

Next summer we are preparing to have an exhibition at the Manor House to celebrate the Ben Rhydding Hydro which was opened in 1844. We would be interested to hear if anyone has artifacts or memories from the Ben Rhydding Hydro, or the Golf Hotel or from during the war when the building was taken over by the government.

 

Hollycroft – a public consultation was held on 2th Jan at which ICS was in attendance along with local residents to see initial plans for a care home that retains the original ‘Key Unlisted Building’ at 16 Hebers Ghyll Drive but with an extension. Look out for the submission of the planning application if you wish to comment.’

 

Assets of Community Value We are in the process of applying for two more ACVs and a renewal for White Wells Cottage.

ACV status highlights the importance to the community of particular buildings and open spaces and gives the community a short period to raise funds to purchase a site in the event the owner wishes to sell. The two new properties are the Lido and Swimming Pool, and Ilkley Moor.

We are at the stage with all three ACVs where we need the backup names of 21 Ilkley residents as they appear on the electoral roll. Just full names, not signatures.

I attach a schedule which you can e mail back to Helen Kidman. Your help is much appreciated.

ACV_SUPPORTERS_2024.pdf

National Nature Reserve

 Ilkley Moor is proposed for a new National Nature Reserve designation -see the Ilkley Gazette for 20th Dec 2023. It already has several protective designations. The consultation closed on 19th January 2024.

Golden Butts Recycling Centres

This one has had a fair amount of publicity. It’s open until 17th February on the budget proposals not just petitions to sign.

 

 

Hollycroft

Hollycroft – a public consultation was held on 29th Jan at which ICS was in attendance along with local residents to see initial plans for a care home that retains the original ‘Key Unlisted Building’ at 16 Hebers Ghyll Drive but with an extension. Look out for the submission of the planning application if you wish to comment.’

 

Ward Boundaries – public consultation (Bradford website suggests to 4th Sept 23 ) currently taking place on ward boundaries in Bradford which has a substantial effect on the boundaries in Ilkley. 

The 10 week consultation runs until 5th February 2024

https://www.lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/bradford

If you click on the “Current Wards” button you can see the geographic currently covered by each Ward on the Map

Then if you click on the “Draft Recommendations” button you can see the revised geographic area proposed to be covered by each Ward on the Map

So for example Ilkley and Craven are currently two separate Wards and Addingham is in Craven Ward but under the Draft Recommendations Ilkley and Addingham are in the same Ward.

Wharfedale Ward is currently made up of Burley in Wharfedale and part of Menston – but under the Draft Recommendations part of Ilkley/ Ben Rhydding north of the railway line as far west as Ashlands School are also included in the Wharfedale Ward.

Does this change make sense? What does this part of north Ilkley/Ben Rhydding have in common with Burley in Wharfedale or Menston – they have their own Parish Councils and are some distance apart – whereas Ilkley Town Council will presumably still have oversight for the whole of Ilkley and Ben Rhydding – and the residents will still be availing themselves of all the services in Ilkley rather than those in Burley in Wharfedale or Menston?

It seems that the Draft Recommendations are trying to equalise the size of each Ward by the number of constituents and then allocate each Ward 3 Councillors – so you could argue it is a numbers game rather than a commonsense or representational game.

ICS Executive Committee

Chair Helen Kidman 

Vice Chair Alex Cockshott (Local History Hub)

Hon Treasurer vacant  

Hon Secretary Kate Brown

Committee: David Blackburn and Anthony Barnett (planning), Graham Peacock

(transport issues), Jan Stallworthy (cemetery), Denise Shillitoe (local history hub).