THE chairman of Ilkley Business Forum has uncovered figures which show there were just three complaints from members of the public about A-boards in Ilkley in the last four years.

Steve Butler, who is also vice-chairman of Ilkley Parish Council and is stepping up to the role of chairman in May, says the information disclosed to him by Bradford Council shows the issue has been "blown out of all proportion".

Ilkley is one of four areas in the Bradford District which has been subject to a trial ban of A-boards on its streets. The aim was to cut the number of obstructions to people with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired and those in wheelchairs, as well as people with pushchairs.

However, in an apparent U-turn Bradford Council Executive is expected to pull back on moves to extend the ban to other urban areas when it meets on March 7. It will instead look to set up a licensing system where businesses in the four trial areas can pay to keep one board on a public pavement.

In a bid to uncover how much of a problem the A-boards are Mr Butler submitted a Freedom of Information Request to Bradford Council asking how many complaints the authority had received from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015 - when the ban started - and how many people had suffered injury.

Mr Butler said: "In the four years before the ban was started there were no personal injuries involving A-boards at all; there were only 20 complaints about them causing obstructions (by 19 individuals), and most of them (five out of 20) were in Keighley. Despite this the ban was tried out in Saltaire (only one complaint); Leeds Road (one), Ilkley (three) and the City Centre (none). The decision not to include Keighley was right because A-boards are vital to promoting small businesses there, just as they are everywhere. Firms would not buy them, and carry them around every morning and evening, if they were no good."

He added: "There are two sides to every argument. The role of the local authority is to look at both sides and then to act in a proportionate manner for the sake of all the citizens of its area. The effect of the ban has been to cause some businesses in Ilkley, all of which employ staff with families of their own, to lose tens of thousands of profits, putting the jobs of their employees at risk. This is not a proportionate response to only three complaints in four years. "The new proposal to licence A-boards is certainly worth considering but it would be wrong to have one policy for the whole of CBMDC. The Council should be willing to work with A-board users, on an area by area basis, to decide the best policy for each town. It is to be hoped that the Council will take an objective look at the real facts about A-boards and consider the severe economic consequences of their ban. A-boards can be used responsibly for the benefit of the consumers, employees and employers at the businesses which rely on them, and of rate-payers generally."

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, executive member for regeneration and transport said: "A licensing system would reduce the number of A-boards on the streets but also generate a small amount of revenue to be able to pay for proper enforcement."

Ilkley businesswoman Helen Rhodes, said she believed a licensing system would be an acceptable compromise, providing the fee was proportionate, although she questioned how fair it was to just single out four areas of the Bradford district. She also branded the way Bradford Council had dealt with the issue as "farcical".