AS always it has been an eventful year in Ilkley and the

surrounding area and this is just the time to take stock of what has been happening.

Many of the local millennium projects have come to fruition as fitting tributes to the hard work of the people involved and others have gone a long way towards reaching their objectives.

Unlike the national multi-million pound projects such as the Dome and the bridge over the Thames, local millennium projects have shown a remarkable degree of success.

In Addingham, the George Street project was completed to the delight of the civic society, the parish council and other villagers.

The Churches Together project in Ilkley has also succeeded in acquiring a house for three young people with learning difficulties in the heart of the town.

The Heartsart campaign has been a major success with the training of life-saving volunteers and the siting of three vital defibrillator machines which should make Ilkley a much safer place in which to shop and work.

The Darwin Gardens are a big asset to the town while on the entertainment front, the Bandstand Project is

gathering momentum all the time and should result in yet another attraction for residents and visitors to the town.

And the formation of the trust to look after and improve the Winter Gardens/Kings Hall is a major step forward, allowing access to previously unavailable streams of funding.

In addition,. we should not forget those positive elements in Ilkley which have been carrying on the good work as normal, such as the Abbeyfield Ilkley Society, the Clarke Foley Centre and the Ilkley Council for Voluntary Services.

The story is not all good news as this is the last New Year we shall have the Ardenlea Marie Curie Centre with us. But all in all, the picture is a very positive one as we prepare to step into the second year of the new millennium.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year.