AMANDA Greaves reports in the Ilkley Gazette (January 1) that Kris Hopkins MP claims that Councillor David Green as Leader of Bradford MDC has made Ilkley ward the target for cost-cutting measures in the next round of austerity measures by the council.

This is despite Ilkley being one of the major contributors of council tax revenue to the council’s coffers, used to run the city centre areas.

The sum of £160 million in cuts has been mentioned, with still a further £19.9m in the next round by Bradford.

My view? About time the bickering stopped.

As a resident of the town for some 30 years, I wish to see a new district council being formed, comprising Airedale & Wharfedale: all the local towns including Ilkley, Shipley, Bingley and Keighley, along with smaller centres such as Addingham, Silsden and Steeton with the many smaller districts in between. New district councillors would be required, but the council would have it’s own council tax gathering powers, separate from Bradford, this would be retained to be spent on local services and amenities. No central government grant would then be required.

This has the full support of Philip Davies MP, Shipley & Bingley and mine too.

These changes would permit Councillor Green to slim down his bloated council, that has 90 elected councillors attending and seated in the council chamber in City Hall. Plenty of council-owned and under-utilised facilities exist in our local town to house the staff needed. Keighley Town Hall has a big chamber where councillors would meet regularly.

Surely these changes would meet with the unanimous approval of local residents and contain existing council taxes at an affordable level.

Paul Latham UKIP parliamentary candidate Curly Hill, Ilkley