THE new president of Otley Chamber of Trade has certainly been making the right noises since coming into office. Jonathan Rutter rightly speaks of the need to encourage new small businesses to be set up in Otley and the need for more active members in the chamber, to give traders and the town more of a voice.

But perhaps his most welcome comment for everyone in Otley and the surrounding area is that he believes that Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is an issue which once again should be closely looked at for the town centre.

The chamber and town and city councillors have spent several years campaigning for CCTV, but in the last 18 months everyone seems to have gone quiet on the subject. A single mobile camera was bought in August, 1999, and it was felt that Otley did not have enough crime to justify a full CCTV scheme.

Otley does not have any more problems with anti-social behaviour than any other town, but there are issues which need to be addressed and if CCTV can curb some of the anti-social incidents occuring in the town after pub closing time, then it has to be welcomed.

In the week that Woolworth's had more than £5,000 worth of electrical items stolen and thousands of pounds worth of damage done to the store doors, it becomes clear that no expense should be spared to get cameras installed. It's time for the talking to stop and real efforts made to get the cameras.

RESIDENTS in Horsforth could be forgiven for thinking that they must have offended the giant mobile phone companies in some way. As yet another mobile phone mast planning application is submitted for the township this week, residents are left wondering why it is that the companies seem to be 'picking' on their community.

Perhaps Horsforth has the best reception; it is on a hill after all. But either way, enough is enough - a community can only stand so many blots on the landscape and it's time for the planners to turn around to these companies and tell them where they can stick their masts.