DESPERATELY needed repairs to pathways, gulleys and roads on Ilkley Moor will have to wait because of damage caused by heavy rain.

Parish councillor Patricia Stevenson has written to Bradford Council's countryside bosses with a list of complaints which she sees almost every day on walks on the moor. These include:

l Paths overgrown with bracken and nettles and muddy (particularly one behind Crossbeck Road).

l Paddling pool area dirty and tatty.

l Entrance to car park below White Wells badly eroded and on its way to being unusable.

l Lots of standing water leading to this summer's explosion of 'midgy bites'.

l Path from paddling pool to White Wells badly eroded and dangerous when wet.

l Path leading to the Tarn badly eroded preventing wheelchair and pushchair access.

l Excessive dog mess around Tarn and other areas.

"I am unhappy about a number of issues really. I was expecting an improvement at the paddling pool but it looks very dirty," Coun Stevenson told the Gazette.

"Lots of kids used it when I was young, I don't know what has happened to it."

At this week's meeting of the finance and general purposes committee, Coun Stevenson heaped praise on the countryside officers for the work carried out to improve the area around the Cow and Calf rocks, but she said she was unhappy about the other problems.

She said she had received a letter from countryside officers saying that further damage had occurred on the road to the car park below White Wells and repairs there would have to take priority over the other jobs needing to be done.

Ilkley resident Frazer Irwin told the meeting that he had offered to clean the drains in the paddling pool for the countryside service if he was given the right implement but his offer had not been taken up.

However, parish councillors said they were wary about issues of liability for problems that could arise from volunteers working on their own initiative.

A countryside service spokesman agreed with most of the concerns.

The spokesman said: "The path behind Crossbeck Road will be cleared and we are awaiting quotes for the resurfacing work to be done at the entrance to White Wells car park. The path to the Tarn also needs resurfacing.

"The paddling pool area is cleaned regularly in summer and was last cleaned a month ago. At times there is excessive dog dirt around the Tarn and we would encourage dog owners not to let their dogs foul in this area.

"We drain hundred of metres of ditches every year on the moor but the standing water that is left is good for the wildlife."