THE scheme to introduce two new sets of traffic lights on the A65 through Ilkley seems to have descended into chaos.

Despite Bradford highway officials having more than two years to plan the project, we still don't know when the grand switch-on will take place. It seems there are problems between Yorkshire Electricity and City Hall in Bradford.

Of course, there are those who are secretly hoping that the grand switch-on will never take place as they foresee nothing but traffic chaos ensuing. Work on the lights at Victoria Avenue at the weekend and earlier this week had traffic backed up to the Silsden Road roundabout on the Addingham bypass and left residents of Skipton Road unable to get out of their driveways.

It was reported that people were taking an hour to travel by road from Addingham to Ilkley. Many motorists consider that this will become a permanent phenomena when the temporary traffic lights are replaced by permanent ones.

And as far as the planned set of lights at Wheatley Lane are concerned, it seems that politicians and officers cannot agree whether or not to remove the left hand filter lane for traffic travelling into Ben Rhydding.

We must not forget that these two sets of lights are in many ways the keystones of a wide-ranging transport improvement plan produced by traffic consultants who charged £50,000 of Council Tax payers' money for their services.

The final implementation of that far-reaching plan can only be viewed with trepidation by many motorists. Far from improving traffic flow in Ilkley, the effect of traffic lights at the Victoria Avenue and Wheatley Lane may do exactly the opposite.

When the temporary ones were put up at the weekend, traffic ground to a standstill. Those motorists who use the A65 must be hoping the impasse between Yorkshire Electricity, Bradford Councillors and City Hall highway officials will continue for a while longer.