Fans of classic horror stories will probably love the latest edition of the Heritage at Risk Register.

The works, by English Heritage, are certainly a terrifying read.

The annually-produced register portrays a picture of decaying buildings and sites across the district.

Keighley town centre is described as being in very bad condition – although improving, with ongoing investment through the Townscape Heritage Initiative.

And Devonshire Park and Cliffe Castle Park are both included.

But perhaps most surprising is the listing of the Haworth Conservation Area.

The Bronte village, a Mecca for tourists from across the world, is identified as one of the region’s ten most important at-risk sites due to a general architectural decline.

For many people in these difficult belt-tightening times, finding enough money to pay the next fuel bill is probably of more importance than conserving the past.

But once our heritage has been lost, it has gone forever.

We won’t be able to recover it.

Keighley and some of its outlying villages are extremely fortunate in that they boast outstanding and hugely important historic buildings and sites, which must be preserved for current and future generations.

Organisations – such as English Heritage, Bradford Council, town and parish councils and where they exist, civic societies – must work together to ensure that what we have is not allowed to deteriorate and slip away.

While most people may not want to live in the past, everyone has a shared responsibility to protect what has given us the foundations for today.