IT'S not that often in Ilkley that the local authority based in Bradford is praised for showing commonsense, but City Hall must be congratulated for its attempts to defuse potential conflict over the forthcoming Unitary Development Plan (UDP).

Instead of presenting a document to be fought over by expensive barristers, solicitors and planning consultants at a subsequent public inquiry, Bradford planners are actively seeking consultation with residents of the district to listen to their views before the draft outline of the UDP is actually published.

As we have reported this week meetings have already been held in Bingley and Keighley. Housing, transport and planning bosses from City Hall have arranged a series of meetings with people in their rural communities to find a way to agree future development before it is set in writing.

It will be a refreshing change from the last UDP which set Wharfedale communities and the local authority at loggerheads.

Obviously there is not going to be agreement all the way down the line - there will be issues which the council and Ilkley will still fight about - but, hopefully, prior consultation will ensure that such issues will be fewer than last time.

It could be argued that because of the conflict between the council and local communities during the last UDP public inquiry, vital mistakes were made.

If planning officers and Addingham village representatives had been co-operating on the Manor Garth inquiry, it just might not have been allocated as housing land.

From the point of view of both Bradford Council and Wharfedale, the more contact and co-operation that is shown, the better the outcome will be of a potentially disastrous future.

We may get a major shock and find that Bradford Council's interests and the interests of Ilkley are not diametrically opposed after all.

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