Deteriorating footpaths in Keighley, Silsden and Oakworth will soon undergo repairs.

But because of limited budgets, councillors compared it to putting a “plaster on an open wound”.

Bradford Council’s Keighley Area Committee met last Thursday to decide how to spend the £27,000 it has allocated for repair works, despite its list adding up to almost double that.

It meant only four out of a possible nine schemes in the Keighley, Ilkley, Haworth and Silsden areas – totalling £49,500 – will go ahead this financial year. And even these will likely only be temporary fixes.

The council’s various area committees are allocated money each year to deal with footpath maintenance, but in the past three years, this figure has dropped from £100,000.

Referring to the limited budget – and the extensive works some paths would need to be brought up to scratch – chairman Councillor Steve Pullen said: “It is just putting a plaster on it. The same list will be back here next year.”

Committee members, meeting in Keighley Town Hall, had difficulty deciding how to allocate the limited pot. Some suggested putting all the money into one project, doing a permanent job rather than a “patchwork” effort.

At one point, Councillor Pullen suggested picking the name of a road out of a hat.

He added: “With this money we are just patching things up rather than getting things done.”

Keith Escritt, traffic and highways engineer, assured the committee the council would still repair dangerous roads, but did not have the funds for many projects due to Government cuts.

Coun Khadim Hussain said: “We have not even recovered from last year’s severe winter. The holes are still there.”

After some debate, councillors chose to allocate the money to Howden Road in Silsden (£5,000), Low Street in Keighley (£11,000), Lynwood Court in Keighley (£5,000) and Providence Lane in Oakworth (£6,000).

Skipton Road and Arncliffe Avenue in Keighley, Station Road in Oakworth and drainage work on Spring Gardens Mount in Keighley all missed out.

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