LAST week's Keighley News featured a pre-war 'team shot' of Keighley Borough Council in 1912 – all men, obviously, as it was not until 1918 that women over 30 were even allowed to vote.

When my wife became deputy mayor in 2012, I wore a gold badge of office – first presented in 1955 and "to be worn by the deputy mayoress", which assumed that it would always be worn by a woman; our late friend Colin Ward had gone a step further in 2009 when he became mayor's consort, even wearing the mayoress' beautiful chain of office!

Contrast this with your feature last week on the 'relaunch' of Hainworth Wood Community Centre, including a picture of my colleague Councillor Samantha Cooper – one of eight women on the current Keighley Town Council. In the interests of equality, long may it continue!

MARTIN WALKER

Wood View Road, Oakworth

* Email your letters to alistair.shand@keighleynews.co.uk