KEIGHLEY Town Council is set to pressure the Government to scrap its nuclear weapons arsenal, writes Chris Pickles.

Councillors have passed a motion to encourage the Government to recommit to disarmament provisions set out in the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The council will write to the Government and the town’s MP, Robbie Moore.

Speaking about nuclear weapons, town mayor Councillor Peter Corkindale said: “They should be consigned to the dustbin of history.”

The council meeting was attended by Sylvia Boyes, a local activist with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Highlighting an alleged lack of action on the UK Government’s part, Ms Boyes said: “The nuclear-weapons states wish to hold onto their nuclear bombs rather than disarm them.

“We are going silently along with the threat of nuclear weapons to future generations. And that is a crime against humanity. That is the moral issue of our age.”

The motion was opposed by Councillor John Kirby, who said: “I am, and probably always will be, in favour of the nuclear deterrent.”

Keighley is part of Mayors for Peace, an organisation headed by the mayor of Hiroshima, which campaigns for the total abolition of nuclear weapons. The 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty aims to reduce the global nuclear arsenal.