CONFUSION surrounds one of the cornerstones of Ilkley's traffic improvement scheme.

A wrangle between councillors and highway officers means that two sets of traffic lights on the A65 have not been installed despite more than two years of planning.

Motorists have been left fuming by 'horrendous' tailbacks between Ilkley and Addingham as work on the proposed lights at the junction of Skipton Road and Victoria Avenue began and stalled yet again.

Councillors have blamed Yorkshire Electricity but the company has denied that the problem has anything to do with it.

Work began at the site at the weekend leading to temporary lights closing off one lane of Skipton Road. Drivers reported queues of up to half an hour of traffic waiting to get past the roadworks. The delays started at the weekend and carried over into the working week.

Many people contacted the Gazette to complain about the delays. Addingham Parish Council chairman Gordon Campbell said: "The traffic between Ilkley and Addingham is horrendous."

Tim Brayshaw, owner of clothes shop Modus on Brook Street, Ilkley, said: "My trade was down by half on Saturday. I spoke to some people and they said they just turned around and gave up. My shop girls took up to one hour to get to work from Addingham.

"Queues were up to Addingham's Silsden Road roundabout. By Christmas it is going to have a severe effect on Ilkley's trade.

"People turned round and went to Keighley. I shall be writing to the council and pushing for a rate rebate."

But a spokesman for Bradford Council said the delays would continue because the work had taken longer than expected to complete.

Stephen Nail, of Bark Lane, Addingham, wrote to the Gazette about his experiences of the delays.

In his letter, Mr Nail says: "This Sunday I spent 30 minutes of the afternoon queuing on Skipton Road. No contractors were working, there was no disturbance at all to the road surface - the only work I could see was to the grass verge.

"What a pointless waste of time. The sooner the Government legislates against inconvenience caused to travellers the better. I rather fear that the coming week will see even more useless delays."

Ilkley parish councillor Lexa Robinson said Victoria Avenue residents were very upset and confused about the uncertainty over the planned road alterations.

She said: "I can see their concern, having been in the traffic jam, which took me an hour to get to Silsden."

Ilkley district councillor Anne Hawkesworth, who as environment head is in charge of Bradford's highways, claimed the problem with the Victoria Avenue lights was down to the electric company.

"We are having difficulty getting Yorkshire Electricity to comply with our requests," said Coun Hawkesworth.

But the mystery deepened when a spokeswoman for Yorkshire Electricity said that the company had completed all its work in September and all that was needed was for Bradford to choose a supplier, get a meter and switch the lights on.

The spokeswoman said: "As far as we are concerned the electricity is there."

She explained that the council could choose from a number of suppliers in the privatised and fragmented industry.

Coun Hawkesworth and Ilkley district councillor Martin Smith have admitted that there were problems with highway officials over the junction of Coutances Way and Wheatley Lane.

Officers have suggested getting rid of the slip road for Ben Rhydding traffic turning left at the junction, but Couns Hawkesworth and Smith want it retained.

Both councillors don't want one set of traffic lights working on its own because they are supposed to work in conjunction to get traffic through Ilkley in stages. The are afraid that one set of traffic lights operating would cause jams.

Critics of the whole scheme fear that two new sets of traffic lights will lead to even more chaos for traffic on the A65, turning Ilkley into a permanent jam nightmare.

l