REPAIRS and refurbishment of Ilkley's former council homes has been delayed because of a shortage of plumbers.

Apart from an acute lack of numbers across the industry, Bradford Community Housing Trust Group (BCHT) - which took over the running of the houses - has been hit by sickness among plumbers.

However, trust chairman Coun Martin Smith (Con, Ilkley) said the situation would improve once sick personnel returned to work and it was hoped that more plumbers could be recruited.

Coun Smith said: "Day to day repairs have not always been carried out as quickly as we would have hoped. We have been struggling with a lack of plumbers and we are hopeful we would be filling those shortcomings soon."

Councillor Gerald Goldsbrough, re-elected as the chairman of the Aire Wharfe Community Housing Trust, which has responsibility for Ilkley, said: "Apparently there is a problem at the moment. There are two plumbers off ill and once they have sorted themselves out things will be back to normal."

He said that the shortage of plumbers was affecting the whole range of plumbing activity, which included water supply, drainage and central heating.

But Coun Goldsbrough said that this would not lead to people being left without central heating in winter.

He said: "If there is going to be an ongoing problem for any reason we will re-assess the situation, and do whatever needs to be done, but there is no situation to assess at the moment."

The professional body representing plumbers said that there was an acute shortage of tradesmen affecting the whole of the building industry.

A spokesman for the Institute of Plumbing said: "There is a massive shortage of plumbers and the Construction Industry Training Board says we need another 30,000 over the next five years."

Coun Goldsborough said: "There are 5,000 properties in the Aire Wharfe Trust - I don't know how many in Ilkley because we don't separate them out from one another."

An earlier estimation by a tenants' group came up with the figure of around 800 former council homes in Ilkley, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Addingham. The Aire Wharfe Trust also includes the town of Ilkley.

Coun Goldsbrough defended the record of the housing trust since it took over in February.

"He said: "Jobs are getting done but if people expected everything to be done on day one they were going to be disappointed - it is totally impractical."

The Gazette spoke to tenants living in The Crescent, Ilkley. They did not wish to be named, but one said she had not experienced any problems since the transfer, while the other had had some repairs that needed to be done but hadn't been.

However, the repair service had sent a surveyor to look at the problem of a leaking roof and work sheets had been made out for