RECKLESS youngsters in Ilkley are dicing with death in their quest for a cheap thrill, the Gazette can reveal.

And at the same time as risking their lives, the youngsters are despoiling one of the area's beloved landscape features.

For two weeks running Addingham councillor David Harrison has been picking up discarded plastic bags containing glue at the Cow and Calf Rocks.

The bags had been strewn around by glue sniffers who had also left an empty glue tin at the scene.

Coun Harrison said: "It took me about half-an-hour to pick them all up,"

He added: "This is what they are getting up to when their parents are letting them loose."

Coun Harrison said that the bags had been left around the former quarry area and he hoped police would stake out the scene to catch the culprits. There is no evidence to suggest whether the sniffers are local or are from outside the area.

"The thing that worries me is, if these kids are driving up there - they are driving back out of their minds. I can't see them walking all the way up to the Cow and Calf rocks to do it - they must be motoring. It is frightening," said Coun Harrison.

The councillor, who was Deputy Lord Mayor of Bradford last year, often picks up litter which has been left at the area's beauty spots by irresponsible visitors and locals.

He said: "We have such superb surroundings and I hate to see rubbish kicking about. I have been by the river bank and picked up three black bags full of beer cans and other rubbish."

Although some local youngsters are known to use the soft drug cannabis, glue or solvent abuse is not seen as a big problem in Ilkley. Around a year ago, detritus left in Addingham suggested some youths in the village had been congregating to inhale solvent or glue fumes.

Ilkley's police boss Sergeant Esther Hobbs said she was not aware of a problem of glue sniffing in the town and would speak to Coun Harrison to try to get more details.

Although highly dangerous, glue sniffing itself is not illegal, but Sergeant Hobbs said police could take action against shops selling glue or against the youngsters themselves because their behaviour could be upsetting witnesses.

"Glue sniffing in a public place has been held to be a public nuisance so there is action we could take," said Sgt Hobbs.

Ironically, the alarming discovery of the glue bags comes just a few months after a major campaign in Bradford schools to warn against the dangers of volatile substance abuse.

Earlier this year 18 youth workers were recruited by the Chantelle Bleau Memorial Fund to hold special assemblies and lessons