AN angry mother hit out this week after finding large pieces of broken glass hanging off the window ledges of a derelict building - just metres away from where her five-year-old son plays.

Andrea Whitaker, 31, of Cumberland Street, told the Herald: "It will take a child like my son James to get hurt before anything is done."

Her comments come after officers at Craven District Council said the earliest date they could look at the building was four days after she had reported it.

She said: "I rang Craven District Council up last Friday. I eventually got through to the planning department who said they would send someone to have a look, but then said it wouldn't be until Wednesday when everyone was back after the holidays.

"All the kids have been off school this week and have been playing down there all the time. I can't believe that a place can just be left like that with all that glass about. It's impossible to tell children to keep away."

The derelict building lies on Lower Union Street which runs at the bottom of Cumberland Street. It was the old office building of Willis until the firm moved to the outskirts of town.

With the future of the building and site unsure, local children have adopted the flat area of land in front as a playground to ride their bikes and play football.

However, according to Andrea, in the past couple of weeks older children and teenagers have been using the windows of the building as "target practice" resulting in shattered glass being shrewn all over this makeshift playground.

Large panes of glass are also perched precariously on the window ledges two storeys up, while young children play underneath. Large planks of wood and debris have also fallen from the building and some have rusty nails sticking out from them.

Andrea said she wanted to know why the council had not boarded up the windows and made the site safe when it was emptied due to its close proximity to a residential area.

She added: "The general feeling on this street is that the place is an eyesore. It looks more like inner-city Bradford than central Skipton, the supposed 'Gateway to the Dales'.

"Many residents on the street feel desperation at the situation because it is just becoming an eyesore and is unsafe at the same time."

Duncan Hartley, head of planning at Craven District Council, said the council was aware of the situation, and would send a building control inspector to have a look at the site as soon as possible.

However, he added that inspectors only usually dealt with structures which were "unstable" so action through this channel could not be promised.

Mr Hartley said: "We will look what needs doing though and contact the owners of the building to ask them to make it safe."

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