Councillors secure Ilkley riverside commitments

Tuesday, 16 July 2024 18:05

Bradford Council has agreed to review its decision not to renew the Ilkley Riverside Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) and has committed to continue emptying bins at weekends and bank holidays.

These commitments follow a motion put forward by Councillor Andrew Loy (Conservative, Ilkley) and Councillor David Nunns (Conservative, Ilkley) at the full council meeting on 9th July.

The PSPO, which was brought in to address anti-social behaviour at the riverside, particularly during the summer months, expired at the end of May, when the council chose not to renew it.

The motion, which passed after minor amendments by the controlling Labour Group, commits the council to reviewing the effectiveness of the Ilkley Riverside PSPO, the resources available to enforce it, and the decision not to renew it.

As part of this, the council will investigate options for enforcing existing byelaws in the district’s parks, which could be used to restrict the use of barbecues. Since the PSPO expired, there has been no enforceable ban on barbecues at the riverside, leading to concerns from local volunteers and councillors about fire risks and littering.

The councillors also secured a commitment to continue to make sufficient resources available to parks and street cleansing services to maintain current levels of waste disposal and litter picking in all council parks, including at weekends and bank holidays. As the current arrangements rely on the use of overtime, there had been concerns they may have fallen foul of cost-cutting due to the council’s financial straits.

Ilkley’s Conservative councillors had previously claimed the PSPO was not being enforced effectively and called for more resources to be made available to implement it, in a motion put forward in October 2022. On that occasion, the council rejected the call for additional resources. Since the PSPO’s inception in May 2021, only three fixed penalty notices have been issued for contraventions of the restrictions.