IT now looks as if the village of Ben Rhydding can say goodbye to the Wheatley Hotel, despite the vociferous campaign to reopen it and the reluctance of its owners to tell us exactly what their plans are.

A public house may be at the heart of the community but when profit is involved, sentiment is the first emotion to be jettisoned overboard. It was exactly the same with BT, the company which got rid of Ben Rhydding's public telephone box.

Despite the fact that there isn't another telephone box within 700 metres, BT decided to remove the one at the junction with Bolling Road and Wheatley Lane because it wasn't being used enough. No heed was taken at all of those who suggest telephone boxes are part of the nexus of vital local services which go to make up a community and give it its identity.

Looking back, the importance of Ben Rhydding to the future of Ilkley as a tourist and spa town cannot be exaggerated. The Ben Rhydding hydrotherapy establishment proved the catalyst for the transformation of Ilkley from a neglected hamlet into the glorious Victorian and Edwardian town it became.

But what of the future for Ben Rhydding? The newsagent shop has long since closed down, the telephone box has been removed and the local pub looks to have called last orders for good. Some residents fear that the rest of the shops in the village will go west once traffic calming measures have been installed on Bolling Road, banishing passing trade from the area.

For a long time people have been saying that Addingham is slowly being transformed from a vibrant village community into a faceless dormitory suburb for commuters.

It now looks to some as if Ben Rhydding could go exactly the same way with nothing but the railway station to identify it as a separate village from Ilkley. Let us hope they are wrong.