An Ilkey businessman has endured an unnerving week with people telling his colleagues that they were sorry to hear he had died.

Paul Anning the owner of Anning's photography shop on Cunliffe Road, Ilkley, said: "I'm not dead, but around five people have told me that they heard I had passed away.

"Customers have been coming into the shop telling staff they were sorry to hear about Mr Anning's death.

"And my bank manager rang me up to say his father had told him I was dead," said Mr Anning.

But although he has seen the funny side of the rumour, Mr Anning, 58, said its persistence began to get him a little worried.

"I thought that perhaps they knew something that I didn't," he said.

Despite the rumour Mr Anning told the Gazette that he felt as fit as a fiddle despite having to spent a week in hospital and a week off work last year after contracting a heart virus.

He said he did not know what started the rumour or how it got around the town so quickly.

He has also been gradually letting go of the reins at the photography shop recently which may have prompted customers, not seeing him behind the counter, to put two and two together and make five.

"Quite a lot of people know me, and I haven't been taking as active a part in the business as before," said the ex-president of the town's Rotary Club.

He said: "But like Mark Twain, I would just like to say that rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

l Neither Mr Anning nor any other resident of Ilkley need be in a hurry to make the journey to the great beyond before the local cemetery fills up with residents.

Cemetery bosses in Bradford told parish councillors this week there is enough room in Ilkley Cemetery to keep it open for the next 200 years.