Business forum airs views on A-boards (From Ilkley Gazette)

Business forum airs views on A-boards

10:02am Thursday 5th July 2012 in Local news

A business forum is to ask for views on A-boards after a number of complaints about them ‘cluttering’ a town centre.

The Ilkley Gazette featured the story of Sally Chawner-Baxter, who described A-boards as one of the many obstacles facing mobility scooter users in Ilkley.

Now the Ilkley Business Forum (IBF) will ask its members for their opinions on the boards, and is hoping to set up meetings with Bradford Council and the parish council to discuss their use.

Forum member Steve Butler, also a parish councillor, is conducting the survey, and warned many retailers are currently breaking official district council policy on the use of A-boards.

And although he says enforcement is sporadic, he wants to know if retailers and traders, who have traditionally supported the use of A-boards, have changed their views.

“For some time now, I have been promising to arrange a meeting between IBF members and interested parties to discuss the issue of the use of A-boards in Ilkley,” he wrote to members of IBF.

“In the past, there have been various comments about how bad A-boards can be.

“The response of the retailer members in the IBF has always been to support their use wholeheartedly: hence my promise to arrange a meeting so that the views of retailers could be explained to those who dislike A-boards.

“The IBF now has a much larger number of members, especially, but not exclusively, retailers, who make heavy use of A-boards.

“I feel, therefore, that the IBF can safely claim to represent the views of such firms in LS29.”

Mr Butler revealed he is trying to set up meetings between traders and the Ilkley Civic Society, Bradford Council and Ilkley Parish Council to discuss the problems with A-boards.

He said under district council rules, “many current users of the A-boards would