Ilkley is set to get Council provided nursery places for local youngsters following a years-long battle, it has been revealed.

More than 20 places are expected to be provided as part of a £2.3 million plan announced by Bradford Council which is hoping to get Government funding to develop 1,220 new early years education places for children across the district.

At the moment there is no local authority nursery provision in Ilkley with places provided through the private and voluntary sectors.

But the plan to develop new places has now been approved by councillors and is due to be considered by the full council later this month before being sent to the Department for Education and Employment.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the Council's executive member for building communities, said: "We are going to create nursery provision in Ilkley and I'm very pleased that the money will be available to do that.''

But he added: "There's nobody in Ilkley without a place of any kind so when these 20 or whatever places are filled there will be other places losing children.''

Councillor Berry said the Council was currently consulting with parents, providers and community groups over exactly how many places would be provided and where they would be located but that the number in Ilkley was likely to be in the region of 20 to 25.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Con, Ilkley) who had feared Ilkley would not benefit from the plans, said: "Of course it's welcome. It will be an improvement so I have got to be happy about that but it has taken a very long time.

"The very first time I spoke in the Council after becoming a ward councillor 11 years ago it was to say Ilkley didn't have any nursery education provided by the Council."

A Council education spokesman said: "The Council is undertaking a feasibility study into the demand for state financed nursery education and consultation is taking place with schools across the district, including those in the Ilkley area.

"The study was requested by the Council's schools sub-committee and will look at the existing levels of LEA provision and what is needed in the future. The findings are expected to be announced later this year.''

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