Keighley has a better feel

Quite obviously, for as many people who have been asked there have been a similar number of opinions, ranging from those who feel that Keighley is not the place to be to those who consider it to be 'hub o't'north'.

As an immigrant to the town from Cheshire a couple of decades ago, I have to say that, probably by definition, I like Keighley. Of course, there are aspects of the town that I could live without: litter pollution and spitting in the street being particular btes noires of mine.

I have the feeling though that those who have nothing good to say about the town might be suffering from the 'grass is greener' syndrome. Indeed, I believe that there are people in this world who are never happy unless they are moaning about how hard they are done by, or how they would be much more content if they lived somewhere else.

Keighley is my home, it sustains me, and it is an interesting place.

True, it is not glamorous. It has little of the sophistication of somewhere like Leeds. But then, Leeds is an impersonal place; its character leaves little to warm to. Leeds is a moneymaking machine with all the personality that this implies.

Keighley has a better feel to it than Bradford has. It is also very different to Bradford; for long enough has the town campaigned for its own Town Council: a body to look after Keighlians that does not have to look over its shoulder at the bigger Bradford picture.

Ever since local government reorganisation of the 1970s and the attempted absorption of the town by Bradford the people of Keighley have seen themselves as the poor relation; offered the left-over scraps and expected to be grateful.

The town has its problems; I hope I'm not looking at it through rose-tinted specs. But the wringing of hands will not solve these problems; neither will carping on about how the town has changed 'since I were a lad'.

Change is not always comfortable but it is often good and healthy. We have a rich diversity of ethnic backgrounds and, over time and when all realise that the past is uninhabitable, I believe that friction will be replaced by harmony.

Remember, it takes only a very small minority of bad apples to infect the barrel, and, the sooner that this is realised and they are removed the better.

I'm not saying that Keighley is an easy place in which to live; it is not. There are dynamics in the town that appear to be diametrically opposed and tend to raise the temperature somewhat. To those who complain, I would suggest that a place without dynamism is going nowhere. We have, in Keighley, the opportunity to harness these tensions for the good of all.

However, don't moan about it. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.