ILKLEY residents and visitor showed huge generosity in response to Saturday’s street collection in the town for victims of the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami.

Ilkley Wharfedale Rotary Club obtained an emergency licence to hold the collection, which raised £900 for disaster relief, and 14 club members responded at short notice to collect on Ilkley’s main shopping streets from 9am to 5pm. Rotarian Terry Parkes, who organised the collection on behalf of the Club’s International Committee said: “We are so grateful for the compassion and generosity shown by so many people, which made the appeal such a success. The current death toll from the disaster is over 1500, with hundreds of thousands of survivors in urgent need of food, water and shelter and it is feared the death toll could rise further as more bodies are recovered from the mud and debris which has reduced their communities to matchwood.”