ON Monday, May 7 there will be road closures in place on various roads in Ilkley as part of the annual Ilkley Carnival.

This will affect two main areas – the route of the parade and Denton Road.

The parade consists of over 1,000 local children and starts on Grove Road, travelling along The Grove, Brook Street, crossing over Leeds Road, down New Brook Street, before turning right onto Denton Road and into East Holmes Field (the carnival showground). The parade starts at 11am but participants will start assembling from 10am on Grove Road. It should reach the carnival showground around 11.45am.

In addition to the roads directly affected it will also impact on those roads leading onto the parade route, so for example all side roads on Grove Road between The Grove and Victoria Avenue and all roads leading off The Grove and Brook Street. The biggest impact will be for the short period of time all traffic is halted on the A65 Leeds Road. It is likely the closure will only be for 10 minutes but this will naturally create a tailback of traffic.

Advice to all motorists and cyclists is to avoid the area of the parade route, particularly between 10.30am and 12 noon.

The carnival is now split between the main East Holmes Field site and the grounds at the front of Ilkley Lido. Due to safety concerns this has necessitated the closure of Denton Road. There is an official road closure order in place from Bradford Council for the section of Denton Road between Middleton Avenue and Carter’s Lane between the hours of 5.30am and midnight on carnival day. However, the road will be open as soon as it is safe to do so. This means this section of Denton Road is likely to be closed to all motor vehicles and cyclists between the hours of 6am and 6pm on Monday, May 7. There will be no access along this part of Denton Road for cyclists on this day. There is no official diversion route in place but vehicles can travel around the closure via Carter’s Lane, Curly Hill and Middleton Avenue. Sections of this route are steep and may not suit all cyclists who may be better using the A65 Leeds Road. There will also be no access for pedestrians for a limited section of the road immediately in front of Ilkley Lido. Pedestrians will still be able to access Middleton Woods and the pedestrian bridge across the river if travelling along Denton Road from an easterly direction (from the iron bridge at Ben Rhydding).