WHEN there clearly appears to be growing support from various quarters for safer go-slow zones around Ilkley’s schools, it has to be asked why there is such reluctance on the part of Bradford Council to implement this.

True enough, local authority highways officers are usually the best placed to judge what is appropriate on our roads, what is legal and what is needed for improved safety. But when the opinion of an increasing number of quite well-informed people is that lower speed limits are needed, it becomes much harder to understand why the move is apparently so far out of the question in Ilkley’s case.

The financial juggling that councils have to do is no secret. Many will feel some sympathy for Bradford Council in this respect, as the authority tries to stretch an ever-tightening budget across all the essential services, while also somehow finding room for a few improvements here and there.

The fact that other areas – and some of these just a couple of miles away – have 20mph zones, and without any catastrophic death toll on their roads, will no doubt leave the campaigners feeling they are missing some all-important point. Not that the pro-20mph lobby is advocating that Ilkley must have whatever Addingham and Burley-in-Wharfedale have.

A Bradford Council officer angered at least one local councillor not long ago by stating that keeping up the Jones’ was not a reason to have 20mph zones in Ilkley. The annoyance, of course, resulting from the fact that supporters of the scheme do, in fact, think it is necessary in order to maintain safety on local roads, and especially where children might be crossing.

If the reluctance is down to lack of funds and the wish to avoid setting a district-wide precedent, or because officers think it would be inappropriate on some (but not all) of the areas suggested in Ilkley, then some dialogue along those lines would be appreciated by local people, even if the news is not altogether good.