WHAT could Ilkley Town Council have done about the fires on the Moor this weekend? This question has been worrying me since Saturday. The answer lies in the very few resources available to the Town Council. Fourteen councillors, all unpaid volunteers, most of them past or near retirement age. Three part-time administrators, none of whom live in Ilkley. One part-time Town Centre Warden whose job description does not include fighting wildfires. This happened in my last few days as a councillor and as figurehead of the Council and I felt powerless and ineffective. We had nothing we could do to help. Fortunately the Fire Services of West Yorkshire and beyond, working together with the City of Bradford MDC, did have a plan. They produced the resources to protect people and property and to restrict the possible damage to the Moor. In the future, Ilkley’s new Town Council, elected next week for the next four years, may be able to make a plan, working with the Fire Service and possibly Friends of Ilkley Moor, to produce some appropriate and practical means to assist if this ever happens again. Meanwhile, what I can and must do, on behalf of the townspeople of Ilkley, is to publicly express our profound gratitude to the men and women who worked so hard and so long to defeat the flames. This horrendous, avoidable incident, caused accidentally or deliberately, could have been so much worse and they made sure that it was not so. As the Town Mayor it is my duty to express our deep appreciation for everything they did and I do so with all sincerity. Thank you to them all.

Steve Butler

Town Mayor

Ilkley Town Council