ORGANISERS of the Ilkley Business Awards have been forced to apologise after dancers in “scanty” clothing employed to provide entertainment at the event left some guests feeling offended and embarrassed.

Tim Blott, of Ilkley, who was a guest at the awards, described a “tawdry display of female flesh at Friday night’s Ilkley Business Awards where girls in scanty clothes greeted and then later danced incongruously and embarrassingly for an audience including Bradford’s Asian Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress”.

He added: “It was like a throwback to the 60s and given all the publicity recently about the President’s Club in London all the more surprising.

“A number of the guests I was with, both male and female, found it very offensive.”

The business awards, which took place on Friday, March 16, at the King’s Hall and Winter Garden, were organised by volunteers from Ilkley Business Forum and supported by Ilkley Parish Council. They are designed to recognise the staff that work for businesses in LS29.

In a statement, the awards committee team said they were sorry to hear guests felt uncomfortable at the event.

It read: “As you can imagine it was not our intention to cause any embarrassment for anyone.

“The dancers were more revealing than we had expected and with hindsight, we perhaps should have stopped

their performance.

“Time is always an issue when all the committee members are volunteers but we accept that we should have been more aware of their appearance.

MORE TOP STORIES

“We have raised our concerns with the company we used to book the entertainment so they are also aware of the feedback.

“The Ilkley Business Awards is run by a committee of volunteers to offer an evening of celebration of businesses in the LS29 area.

“We have run the event for three years and we always receive lots of very positive comments about how the businesses in the area enjoy the opportunity to have an evening of celebration together, especially when small business is facing so many challenges.

“We would like to stress what an impact this has had on us as a group of mainly female volunteers and that we feel crushed by such strong negativity which was never intended.”

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Abid Hussain, declined to comment.