Cllr Eileen McNally has had some pretty harsh things to say about this newspaper's coverage of the schools shake-up. She is not the only politician on Bradford Council to hold that view.

This week during the debate in the council chambers Cllr McNally accused the Keighley News of backing Keighley's 'education gurus' - whatever one of those might be - being 'sensationalist' and even 'negligent' in its duty towards people, whose confidence in the review team had been undermined.

The Keighley News also published in an 'irresponsible manner' details of the so-called missing 270 secondary school places, she says. Cllr McNally is entitled to her views.

It is the duty of journalists to ask questions and drill down to the bottom of all issues, no matter how awkward or uncomfortable it may make some people feel.

If asking questions on behalf of people who feel they cannot get a straight answer to a straight question from an elected representative is sensationalist, negligent and irresponsible then this newspaper is proud to be 'guilty' and will continue to re-offend.

In a statement to the KN this week Cllr Susanne Rooney makes a number of points of clarification. One of which states that the Bronte Middle School buildings will not be lost to the people of Keighley. "As we have said before, we want this site to continue to be used for education and we are actively working on this."

In the original and then the final proposals the review team's recommendation clearly states that the school should close. Nowhere does it even hint that the site will continue to be used for education. We were probably too busy being negligent and irresponsible and missed that remarkable decision. We have been sensationalist and put it on today's front page.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.