CITY leaders should hand over a contested strip of land in Burley to the safekeeping of the Ilkley parish, it has been claimed.

Ilkley Parish Council recently reclaimed Burley Scout Hut and the surrounding land on Peel Place, which was owned by the Ilkley Urban District Council until the 1970s.

Bradford Council, which has previously overseen and collected rent for the land, agreed to hand over the land.

The parish council says it will keep it in trust and is likely to lease it to the scouts for a 'peppercorn rent'.

But Bradford Council still owns part of the land - which is fenced off with the rest of the site - and plans to lease it back to the parish.

Some councillors are calling for the land to be given to the parish council, to keep in trust for the scouts, in place of the rents charged by Bradford over the last 30 years.

Councillor Mike Gibbons said: "I think they should reconsider giving it to us."

Parish councillors previously asked if Bradford should hand over some of the money it has made by charging rents on the land, but was told that the cost of administering the rent would outweigh the rent received.

Councillors said the scouts group had carried out its own maintenance on the site.

Bradford Council's principal consultant solicitor, Tony Kilner, said: "Clearly an administrative error was made back in 1974 when the old Urban District Council inadvertently transferred the charitable trust land, on which the Scout hut stands, to Bradford Metropolitan Council.

"This has now been rectified.

"As far as the additional strip of land is concerned, legally we are obliged to get the best value for our land and we cannot simply give it away.

"We have offered the parish council a leasing agreement."