YOU MAY imagine I would be delighted by demands for Councillor Graham Mitchell to stand down as mayor of Keighley because I was the other candidate and was defeated by him.

You would be wrong. I see an attack on Keighley’s mayor as an attack on Keighley. What’s more, it is an uncalled for and ridiculous personal attack.

Here is a little bit of Keighley history you may not know. About 1975 a Liberal colleague and I organised a public meeting calling for Keighley’s own council, lost in the 1974 re-organisation, to be restored. At that time, legislation did not allow for new parish councils.

We invited Dr Prentice to chair the meeting, which was very well attended with people squashed into the council chamber of the town hall. One after the other, people rose to call for Keighley to have its own council.

One man kept jumping up to shout down speakers. That man was the then Bradford councillor Eric Pickles. Eventually, Dr Prentice politely called him to order.

This was the same Eric Pickles who was Kris Hopkins’ predecessor as leader of Bradford Metropolitan District Council; the same Eric Pickles into whose shoes Mr Hopkins stepped to become Local Communities Minister; the same Eric Pickles who declared to the nation on Desert Island Discs he never wanted to return to Keighley; the same Eric Pickles who seems to have had a great influence on Kris Hopkins MP.

In my opinion, since it was formed in 1974, Bradford District Council has been desperate not to lose Keighley. I have to ask why? I believe it is because Bradford would very much like to overtake Leeds as regional capital. Bradford hasn’t a hope – Leeds is bigger and richer.

It’s about time Bradford stopped holding Keighley hostage for the sake of its own ambitions. It is also about time Kris Hopkins stopped playing games.

COUNCILLOR JUDITH BROOKSBANK