A row has broken out over the name of an Ilkley scheme to mark the arrival of the millennium - Darwin Gardens.

The project should transform the town's West View Park into a site celebrating Charles Darwin's contributions to natural history and Ilkley's past.

But Ilkley Parish Councillors are against naming the scheme after the man who did much to debunk the Biblical concept of creation. At a parish council meeting this week, Coun Mike Gibbons (Con, Ben Rhydding), said: "It is a Christian celebration of 2,000 years. There is absolutely no reason to change the name, particularly to that of someone who is associated with 'interesting' theories."

After the meeting Coun Audrey Brand (Con, Menston), said: "I feel this project would be a good reclamation exercise to tidy up the area, make it attractive and hopefully used by residents and tourists alike.

"However, there seems to be one point of objection from many residents and that is the name -- Darwin Gardens.

"Darwin's association with Ilkley was very tenuous and that name is quite inappropriate to the millennium. It is not the birth of Darwin we are celebrating but the birth of Christ 2000 years ago. Please can we retain the original name of West View Park?"

But project manager Dr Peter Harnett said: "We are only using this as a working title. What happens will depend at the end of the day on what Bradford Council decide as owners of the land.

"It is by no means an exclusively Darwin-orientated exercise and there has been no intention at any stage to devalue the Christian millennium."

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