DOES Kris Hopkins think he can build a political career by hedging his bets?

To defer his decision on the matter of the incinerator at Marley, by waiting for precise information from Endless Energy, seems indecisive.

If ordinary citizens (and Keighley News editorials on February 9 and March 30) can’t get at actual facts, surely our local MP should be able to do so?

Apparently not, so therefore he is in the same boat as the rest of us – uncertain.

Why is he so opposed to a thorough inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the town he represents in Parliament, say on the scale of the Rotherham inquiry?

He argues this would reveal no more knowledge than is already known. Yet he knows it has taken decades for information re CSE to gradually emerge anywhere.

Now, he expects people to come forward and supply ‘his’ campaign with details of drug dealing in Keighley. Unfortunately, people are afraid of supplying information in either case.

Whatever else the disgusting use of young girls for sexual abuse was about, it was a business – just like drugs – conducted for financial profit. Because of the M62, girls could be rapidly transported to many northern towns between Liverpool and Hull – towns such as Keighley and Rotherham.

Unless these inter-connections are properly investigated to a degree beyond even what is already happening, we will never understand a disgraceful situation we should all be ashamed of – it was going on under our noses for nigh on 50 years.

Without some decent recognition on the part of the authorities, ordinary people will never have the confidence to come forward and supply information about anything. They fear reprisals – their property and families are in jeopardy.

Keighley is not a large town. The mothers who paid for the hooded jackets worn by the bored boys shown in the CCTV image you featured – CCTV of ‘sickening’ yob attack on school (Keighley News, April 20) – know their sons were involved in the trashing of Keighley St Andrew’s CE Primary School but they are not going to tell anyone about it. Nor will their neighbours, who probably also know.

The same logic applies for crimes far more serious than several hundred pounds worth of mindless damage to an important local facility.

Can Mr Hopkins not realise criminal activities, particularly in a town of this size, cannot be isolated one from the other, so that one can become ‘his’ campaign and another can grind towards a full stop?

Is it possible that he and others who oppose a full-scale inquiry, such as councillors Hinchcliffe and Val Slater, know that individuals who were in a position of some authority – and so might have done something to stop that loathsome practice – are still alive and possibly in post?

Personally I think they should be investigated just as systematically as the vile perpetrators.

Half a century of it, Mr Hopkins; what do you think?

CHRISTOPHER ACKROYD East Morton

* In response, Mr Hopkins said: "We have an incredibly in-depth national public inquiry into child sexual exploitation currently ongoing and it is vitalthe focus remains fully on this. I have spoken out against CSE countless times since entering Parliament and, indeed, have regularly been the subject of threats and abuse afterwards. This includes having to evacuate my office on one occasion on security advice. “Working with Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, I was able to achieve changes in our nation’s law to make it easier for the police to bring the vile men behind these sickening crimes to justice. Locally, we have also seen a very high number of arrests and convictions, as has been well-publicised. Much of the success of these efforts has been because local people have come forward in confidence with information of use to the police. “Mr Ackroyd criticises me for expecting people to similarly come forward with information to help drive local drug dealers off our streets. He is clearly not aware that, during the first month of the anti-drugs campaign earlier this year, Crimestoppers experienced a 58 per cent increase in information from residents about illegal drugs in Keighley. Rather than be cynical, I’d prefer him to get behind the good work that is going on.”