The Ilkley Journal

31/10/2025

Living as we do in the long aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and a post-meaningful world of growth – coupled with the anti-worker agenda of AI, as the internet sage Ethan Zuckerman has described the technology being hammered out by capitalist tech bros in search of their own versions of utopia (while pocketing a pretty penny) – it’s not all that surprising to learn that the number of race-related hate crime being recorded in West Yorkshire has increased significantly over the past 15 years. It’s also been reported recently that hate crime more generally is on the up again in England and Wales ....

To read more tap on the link below in comments ⬇️

29/10/2025

Going live this week: race-related hate crime, immigration, identity and economics ... 🇬🇧

27/10/2025

Green Party councillors on Bradford Council have urged the Labour government to return Yorkshire Water back to public hands, 36 years after it was privatised along with other water companies under the Water Act.

Proposing a motion to Bradford Council, Ros Brown, one of three councillors representing Ilkley, said that since privatisation, water companies had paid out billions in dividends and accrued significant amounts of debt while continuing to increase water bills.

“Public ownership is not just viable,” she stated. “It’s essential for a cleaner, fairer, and more resilient water system.”
https://www.theilkleyjournal.co.uk/p/yorkshire-water-1-of-3-water-companies

24/10/2025

District council meetings are a big deal.

Especially the full council meetings.

The ones where most councillors turn up.

The ones where lots of important decisions get discussed and debated.

The ones that affect us all.

But ask yourself: when was the last time you turned up to one?

Or even watched an entire session remotely?

Ever?

Our guess is that very few people have turned up or even watched a meeting recently.

Let’s get one thing straight. We’re not having a go.

Far from it.

These meetings often happen during the day, when lots of us are either at work, on the school run, out and about in the community.

The last big council meeting, for instance, was at 4pm on a Tuesday.

They can also be very long.

Who, for example, has five and a half hours (the running time for that last big get together) to sit through a lot of procedural chit chat from our locally elected representatives?

Who even wants to?

Yet, these meetings need to be attended, witnessed, reflected on, analysed, digested and reported on.

These council meetings need journalists.

Qualified journalists.

Who believe in facts.

Who believe in quality.

And who believe and care about the craft of writing.

They need The Ilkley Journal …

And we need you …

Show your support today by tapping on one of the links below and becoming a paid supporter and champion of a slower and better kind of local journalism.

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23/10/2025

Yorkshire Water 1 of 3 water companies “responsible” for 81% of serious pollution incidents ... discover more by tapping on the link below ...

23/10/2025

Katie Lam is a Conservative MP "tipped" as a possible future leader of the party. She is only 34. Her comments are just the latest example of how far attitudes about multiculturalism and the language around race, ethnicity and identity have changed in the UK.

We explore all of this next week in an essay that takes as its starting point data on hate crime in West Yorkshire.

Sign up for free to get it direct to your inbox: www.theilkleyjournal.co.uk

19/10/2025

... Robbie Moore on being silenced, Ilkley Manor Trust's funding boost and a whole lot more in our latest roundup of news in Ilkley and West Yorkshire 🗞️

17/10/2025

The latest news in Ilkley and West Yorkshire. Link below 🔗

16/10/2025

Yep. We're on YouTube now. It is what it is: https://www.youtube.com/

15/10/2025

Dropping next week – with a little pictorial teaser.

14/10/2025

Ever heard of the Budget Reference Document?

The one for 2025–26?

Didn’t think so.

It’s around 375 pages long …

… and packed with approximately 30,000 words (and numbers).

It’s an important document about the council’s finances.

Which directly affects you.

Yet, we bet, no one knows about it.

And even if people know about it, chances are they’re not really reading it …

… deeply, from start to finish, word for word.

This isn’t good enough – for anyone.

A report like this needs proper scrutiny.

And analysis.

And follow-up questions.

It needs qualified local journalists with the time and skill needed to properly dig into it.

It needs The Ilkley Journal.

Sign up as a paid supporter today to help fill this gap and better hold power to account.

Links below.

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13/10/2025

If you missed this in-depth piece last week, here's you chance to catch up ...

Reflecting on his recent meeting with Robbie Moore, Climate Action Ilkley trustee Steven Webb addresses some popular misconceptions