THE confusion over who maintains the Mill Ghyll lights - if indeed they are going to be reinstated - might not exist if all dealings and discussions around the matter had been fully documented.

We have a situation where parish councillors have no formal agreement on paper to maintain the illuminations paid for by ward councillors, and yet the Ilkley ward councillors have the understanding that the issue was being taken care of, although perhaps not via a written agreement.

A great many matters these days have to be dealt with by working groups and project managers outside of the council chamber. There is too much work, and too few hours available at council meetings, for all matters to be fully debated in public at council meetings.

There is proper procedure in place in the council’s standing orders, which set out what sort of decision or debate must go before a publicly-held council meeting, and what goes on official records. It’s also widely accepted that it’s possible for some minor delegated powers to be given out by the council to a project manager or a small group of councillors on certain matters.

However, it would rule out any such confusion in future if it was possible to minute all such discussions, and for reports of any action or discussion undertaken on behalf of the council to be compulsory, and to go before a public council meeting. Procedure aside, we are now left with the question of what to do about resurrecting a feature that has cost thousands of pounds of public money.