THERE were two seemingly unrelated items in last week's (February 15) Keighley News which could actually have a connection.

The first is the very interesting find of the German map, which makes it obvious that the Luftwaffe knew full details of the importance of the Keighley industries to Britain's war effort. All the key sites were marked and ready for destruction.

I have always wondered why Keighley was never bombed and many years ago this was explained to me by an elderly resident.

All the sites marked on the German map and all the houses in the Aire Valley had a chimney on them. The combined output from all the smoke created a huge cloud of pollution which, due to the geographic layout of the valley and the atmospheric conditions, conspired to keep this fog in the valley bottom.

From the air, the Luftwaffe was unable to see any of the town due to this manmade fog which looked to them like a lake – they were not going to waste bombs on a lake.

This brings us to the second related article, the incinerator.

I'm fairly sure that the geography of the Aire Valley has remained much the same for many years. The atmospheric conditions will also be similar to wartime, the only change has been the removal of the pollution from chimneys.

If the incinerator goes ahead the pollution will return, the only difference in the 21st century is it will be smokeless pollution. The apparent lake will still be there flooding the valley, the only difference all these years later is it will be an invisible lake.

CHRIS BRYANT

Parkway

Steeton