KKK features on 20mph road sign, Ilkley gets a new town mayor and how to make the lido fit for purpose
Welcome to The Ilkley Journal roundup 🗞️
On the eve of our three-week anniversary, we have our third roundup – and we continue to be humbled by the reception we’ve so far received. And, as is oft said, we’re only getting started.
This week we’ve attended and reported on the annual meeting of Ilkley Town Council, heard from locals who have been shocked by sights like the above and reflected on the future of Ilkley Pool and Lido. Write-ups below.
Before we go, a quick little update – we’re going to be working on one of our big stories over the next couple of weeks, so our next edition is likely to be published week commencing 27 May (we’ll still be active on social).
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NEWS IN BRIEF 🚨
Ilkley gets its first-ever Ilkley Community Alliance town mayor
Ilkley Town Council has elected its first-ever Ilkley Community Alliance town mayor, with Damian Kearns taking over Labour’s Karl Milner, who has been in the role for the past year.
Damian, who represents Ben Rhydding and was deputy mayor, pipped the Conservative councillor for Ilkley West, Catherine Cheater, to the “top job” at the annual meeting of Ilkley Town Council on Monday 13 May.
His appointment to town mayor was a more straightforward affair than last year’s election, when a seven-seven split resulted in the then mayor, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Ilkley South, Mark Stidworthy – who had earlier announced that he would not be standing in the local elections – having a casting vote.
“It was unfortunate that the mayoral election this week was contested and that Mark Stidworthy, the outgoing mayor, chose to politicise the council,” a spokesperson for the Conservative council members said at the time.
Presenting his short pitch at the annual meeting, Damian highlighted his time as deputy mayor, his active contributions to four council committees, a policy paper he wrote on planning and, more recently, his ongoing involvement with a working group that is looking at ways of bringing back Golden Butts Household Waste Recycling Centre (known locally as “the tip”).
“I needed the support of three different groups to be standing here today,” he said. “I’d really love to make it four. It would mean a lot to me – and I think it would mean something to the town.”
He paid tribute to Karl’s time as mayor, quoting Hemingway who famously said that “courage was grace under pressure”. “Karl’s calm and steadfast way really exemplifies that quality,” he said.
“I follow Karl who set the bar very high during his term in office and I would like to thank him for his leadership and hard work.”
Jane Gibson, Labour councillor for Ben Rhydding, was elected deputy mayor. She said: “I am delighted to be given the opportunity of working as deputy mayor, supporting the mayor and the town council.
“I became a councillor in order to make a positive difference in Ilkley, particularly in promoting inclusion, youth opportunities, supporting community activities and enhancing our treasured green spaces.”
The Ilkley Community Alliance was established in 2023, with four independent candidates contesting that year’s local election joining forces.
“Our mission is to create a more collaborative, transparent and responsive local government, free from the constraints of party politics,” a spokesperson for the group said at the time.
“We believe that by focusing on the unique needs and priorities of our community, we can work together to build a better future for everyone who calls Ilkley home.”
The Ilkley Community Alliance is a big supporter of the controversial speed-calming measures in the town, particularly the 20mph speed limit. It is, however, less enthusiastic about speed bumps.
Ilkley Town Council launches major community consultation
Members of the public have been invited to take part in a major community consultation commissioned by Ilkley Town Council.
The survey will help the council identify key community issues and needs, which will, in turn, be used to shape its plans for Ilkley over the next three years.
Residents should receive a paper version of the survey in the Spring 24 newsletter and can also submit it online using this link.
If locals would rather complete the survey in person – and have an opportunity to discuss matters with Ilkley’s councillors – they can attend one of two public consultations that will be held at the Clarke Foley Community Hub.
The first takes place on Wednesday 5 June 6pm–8pm and the second on Saturday 8 June 10am–12pm.
Some of the questions on the survey seek to establish how aware locals are of key services managed by the council – including allotments and defibrillators – whether people agree that the public toilets should be refurbished, how many residents know about community grants, and how important other assets, attractions and services are – such as Ilkley library and Mill Ghyll – which are managed by Bradford Council and other organisations, to the people of Ilkley.
The survey also asks whether people are in favour of Ilkley Town Council reviving the Golden Butts “tip” in Ilkley, which would likely come at an additional cost to residents.
The deadline for feedback is Friday 28 June 2024.
Ilkley Pool and Lido Community Group launches major survey
Residents in Ilkley are being encouraged to complete a survey to help The Ilkley Pool and Lido Community Group better understand how Ilkley Pool and Lido can deliver a better and more engaging service to secure its long-term future.
Considered to be under threat of closure because of cost-cutting measures being implemented by Bradford Council, which isn’t helped by a poor financial model – the lido operated at a significant loss of £280,000 for the 2022–2023 financial year – the campaign group is exploring all sorts of ways it can ensure that the open-air swimming pool remains an integral part of Ilkley.
“We believe the pool and lido are key to the health and prosperity of the town’s residents and businesses,” the group states on the survey form.
“We aim to protect the Ilkley pool and lido and wider site to ensure its facilities are available for the benefit of the Ilkley and wider community now and in the future.”
The survey is split into three sections: usage (do you use the pool; do you use the lido; etc) profitability (would you buy refreshments from a cafe that isn’t just for pool and lido users; would you attend more often with extended opening hours; etc) and support (would you volunteer to keep the lido and pool open; would you join the campaign group as a member; etc).
Responding to the survey on Facebook earlier this month, Steven Earnshaw, whose profile reads “Yorkshireman, Militaryman, Funnyman, Skipper, Dive Instructor and Rugby Enthusiast”, said he didn’t complete it because it featured a “ridiculous set of questions”.
“The lido needs to be looked at with a pragmatic approach, and ‘full moon’ swims will not plug a 250k deficit,” he said. “What is it people want from their local pool? Is cost a factor? Is it under-utilised, subject to lack of facilities? Can the pool be better divided to maximise revenue?
“I don’t pretend to know, but the lido is a vast space that has, like many BMDC sites, been neglected for decades. Upping entry, having one-off events and luring people with an external cafe will likely not solve your issue.”
A link to the survey can be found here.
THE LEAD 📰
The 20mph debate gets very ugly
If you were asked what the KKK, Chairman Mao, Kim Jong Un and Ilkley South councillor Karl Milner have in common, we’d happily wager that the last thing that would come to mind would be 20mph road signs in Ilkley.
Yet, stranger than fiction, here we are, in 2024, presented with a spectacle as uncanny as a mishmash of the above, with a picture of Karl, the former mayor of Ilkley Town Council, superimposed on both a portrait of the late Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China, and Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of North Korea, and, thrown in for good measure, an alliterative graphic of Kouncil, Kontrol and Kult – the rather disconcertingly summarised with the KKK acronym below it.
This unexpected, strange and muddled act of vandalism, protest and, if we’re being generous, unintentional street art – distasteful, racist and very, very bad – on leafy Wells Road may initially appear as an aberration, Ilkley being a relatively quiet, peaceful and tolerant place to live and work, but there is, it seems, a very small minority who are increasingly keen to get their divisive and non-inclusive message across in more hostile ways.
For instance, West Yorkshire Police recently revealed that the Nazi swastika emblem had been scratched onto 13 cars in Ilkley, describing it as an act of racially aggravated criminal damage. It wasn’t just an isolated incident, too, with footage of the individual “at work” being captured on 22 March, 12 April and 15 April. In 2023, during Pride month, local businesses and organisations were sent hate mail for visibly showing their support for the LGBTQ+ community, typically through displays of rainbow-themed bunting, flags and decorations (Ilkley Pride is still new to the town, with the first event taking place in 2022).
Karl sees all of this as part of a worrying and emerging trend in Ilkley, with the most recent incident – and not just isolated to Wells Road we are told – the “latest iteration of right-wing extremist behaviour that is tolerated by those on the right of centre politically in our town”.
“Overwhelmingly people in Ilkley are friendly, fun and engaging,” he says. “But there is an element here of conspiratorial nutjobs. They think the whole world is out to get them and that I am the woke-in-chief!
“I have news for them: everyone else is getting on with their lives with tolerance and respect for one another’s differences – and they are a dying breed thank goodness.”
The former mayor of Ilkley isn’t the only one who thinks this. Commenting on a Facebook post from local resident Gavin Lee, whose images accompany the article, another local, Daniel Cox, said: "There are a number of people in Ilkley who don’t like the 20mph speed limit. That’s fine. There are, I suspect, a much smaller minority who see it as part of some much bigger conspiracy: mention of 15-minute cities, WEF, Soros and other nonsense is a giveaway. There is a common antisemitic theme to much of those theories – and the use of KKK is no great surprise."
The KKK message, Kouncil, Kontrol and Kult, is a bizarre and troubling one. Even though there’s a sort of thematic thread running through all of the images – e.g. their logic being think Karl Milner, think Karl Marx; Labour is a mere stepping stone away from more radical socialist and communist sensibilities; undemocratic overreach and unaccountability has taken hold of Ilkley (there is a view among some that Karl’s casting vote decision to back Bradford council’s 20mph scheme in Ilkley – acting in his capacity as town mayor – and doing so in stark contrast to the supposed will of the people of the town was unjust) – which gives some context to the crude comparison of Karl to Mao and Kim respectively, the choice of replacing the C in council, control and cult with a K, and then going even further by displaying it as KKK, doesn’t make a lot of sense. If it’s intended to be funny, it isn’t. If it’s supposed to have depth, it doesn’t.
The choice of spelling, therefore, appears to be stylistic – to be seen to be clever wordplay. The spelling has no real European comparison with, for example, council, control and cult translating as rat, kontrolle and kult in German (so one out of three, but call that luck). Perhaps, on seeing what they’ve done, they’ve realised that the rhythmic words – going by the principle of the power of three – can be further reduced to the provocative and attention-grabbing KKK and, without giving it too much thought, have simply liked how much of a visual and emotional impact those three same letters, one after the other, has.
It’s very unlikely they’re saying that Bradford Council and Ilkley Town Council are akin to the American far-right white supremacist extremist hate group, which had its destructive heyday in the 20th century. It makes no sense whatsoever. It therefore comes back to being vulgar. If the intent was to make a point and for it to be amusing, they’ve failed by a wide margin. It's more than just puerile – it’s offensive and intimidating.
“Using KKK is alarming and entirely unacceptable,” says Karl. “This language is designed to stoke fear and division and is particularly offensive for non-white residents and visitors. It's a stark reminder of the undercurrents of intolerance that can surface even here.”
What’s also fascinating about this incident is the fact that this can’t have been a quick job. A reasonable amount of time, effort and even money would have been needed to design, print and stick up the images. Deciding on what 20mph signs, too, would serve as a base, feels considered. After all, Wells Road seems to have been a deliberate choice, with plenty of trees along the road providing plenty of cover (unsurprisingly, whoever was behind this currently prefers anonymity to infamy).
The one of Karl laid over the top of Kim appears to have been sourced from Deviant Art, which describes itself as the largest online art gallery and community. This image is largely a blank one, with no facial features but the recognisable outline of North Korea’s current leader (and labelled as such). We couldn’t find an exact match for the image of Mao, whose portrait was so fundamental to his cult of personality during his ruinous reign, with the closest we could find being an image from the stock photo and video site Alamy, which depicts him with the radiance of yellow and reddish-orange sun rays emanating from behind him. The KKK image, in comparison, seems to be an “original”. Although it is comparably more modest in its execution, it still packs a punch with the words displayed in a large, striking red serif font. Finally, it’s likely that whoever put the images up needed step ladders, as you can’t reach the actual 20mph sign from the ground. Climbing up the poll and plastering the ineptly cut images on the sign at the same time also feels like a bit of a stretch.
It’s reasonable to assume that we haven’t heard or seen the last of this. The ongoing debate about the rollout of traffic calming measures in Ilkley remains as heated and divisive as ever, with every new speed bump added to the town’s roads only serving to exacerbate the situation, an unwelcome and visceral reminder to those who are especially committed to overturning the scheme of the gross injustice they and other residents have been served. Whether you’re of that opinion or not, there are better ways of fighting for what you believe in. Ilkley has no place for hate.
If anyone has more information about this incident, you can speak to us in confidence. Email us at tipoffsandstories@theilkleyjournal.co.uk
THE ILKLEY JOURNAL VIEW 📢
Some things, like Ilkley Pool and Lido, which many consider to be at risk of closure as part of Bradford Council’s cost-cutting plans – it wants to save £175 million over the next five years – are worth saving.
Which is why we welcome the efforts being made by the recently formed Ilkley Pool and Lido Community Group to explore ways of securing the future of the Grade II listed attraction, which has been welcoming visitors since the 1930s.
The historic attraction, which is managed by Bradford Council, drastically needs to be pulled into the 21st century and transformed into a sustainable and multifaceted enterprise that is fit for purpose. And that means improved leadership, an ambitious and adaptive strategy and, of course, better financial management.
Because £907,000 in income and £1,187,000 in expenditure for 2022/23 does suggest that something isn’t quite adding up – to the detriment of Ilkley’s residents and taxpayers (although, it must be said, Ilkley isn’t alone, with a recent report revealing that most if not all of Bradford’s leisure centres do not operate at a profit).
Saving the pool and lido isn’t just about ensuring that the leisure facility is managed effectively – it’s also about preserving an asset that delivers real physical and mental health benefits to the people of Ilkley. As a major study from Swim England in 2017 revealed, “swimmers live longer, regular swimming helps older people stay mentally and physically fit, and participation in swimming lessons can help children to develop physical, cognitive and social skills quicker [and] swimming has a positive impact on a range of physical and mental health conditions including obesity, cancer, cerebral palsy, and pulmonary disease”.
That is something worth fighting for.