SHAMEfaced Ilkley residents have been calling for the restoration of the family grave of two of the town's most famous benefactors.

Brother and sister James Foley and Sarah Clarke never forgot their Ilkley roots after making it rich in their adopted country America.

They used their fortune to provide the money for a trust which established the older residents' community resource, the Clarke Foley Centre, in Cunliffe Road, and for other good works in Ilkley and Addingham.

Now, according to parish councillor Lexa Robinson, it is time to pay back the family by looking after their neglected mother's grave in Ilkley Cemetery on Leeds Road.

Coun Robinson said: "It is still the family grave - one or two people have stopped me and said it is a mess when you think the family have provided the Clarke Foley Centre."

She said the Foley grave was just one of many old graves which were not looked after any more as connected families died off or moved away.

Council workers are not allowed to touch the inside section of the grave if it has surrounding stones. Coun Robinson and cemetery officers have been trying to trace relatives for the past eight years to ask permission to put graves into a more manageable state.

Some of the almost toppling headstones have been moved or repaired because they caused a danger to members of the public and children playing in the cemetery.

Coun Robinson said she spoke to the administrators of the Clarke Foley Trust and was told that there was not enough money to put the grave right.

But she said not a great deal needed doing to it to make it right. A cross which used to stand at the head of the grave had fallen down and been taken away.

"If that were replaced with a short headstone and the surrounding stones were removed, allowing the workers to mow the grass in the middle, it would be a great improvement at not so great expense.

Coun Robinson said: "It would be absolutely horrible if someone coming from America to look for the graves, knowing they had put all that money into the town, saw it in such a state.

"I am sure they would be very hurt and very upset. There are no relatives I can find. I have asked around and nobody seems to know anybody in this country.

"Even if we found someone they might not be able to afford to do something. It would be nice if something was done with it."

Coun Robinson said that the grave had been looked after by a resident who did not want to see it neglected by the town. But she had given up because of her age.

"It would be lovely if someone, somewhere could pick this up. I can't do anything because I am not a relative. I would like to know what other people think," said Coun Robinson.

But the chairman of the Clarke Foley Trustees, Doctor Chris Molander, of Wheatley Road, Ilkley, indicated that the trust would be unlikely to stump up the cash to restore the grave.

Dr Molander said: "This has been raised before - this is the grave of the mother of James Foley. She died in 1916 before he went to America and made his fortune. The Clarke Foley Trust has nothing to do with that.

"We are a charity and we are not over-endowed with cash. People discussed this at the time it was raised and it really wasn't particularly relevant.

"She had nothing whatever to do with the trust. She was long dead before her son went to America and made his fortune. The family is extinct now and we are cash starved."

District councillor Martin Smith suggested that perhaps any number of organisations could come up with a rescue plan between them.

Coun Smith said: "I am surprised to learn that the grave is semi-derelict. Perhaps the Clarke-Foley committee might wish to attend a working party to rectify it. I am disappointed to hear of it."

District and parish councillor Anne Hawkesworth is the local authority's representative on the Clarke Foley Trust and as environment boss at City Hall, is also responsible for cemeteries.

She said: "Perhaps the parish council ought to think about doing something - perhaps it is something that should be looked into."