Ilkley Business Forum is hoping to raise £10,000 for festive community projects - but has warned parish councillors that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Forum members are preparing to establish the Ilkley Community Christmas Fund, with a major raffle planned to raise money for projects such as the town's Christmas lights.

However, the forum's spokesman has said members were very anxious to play an active role in seeing how the money was put to use.

David Giddings, of Grove-based Opulent Designs, said: "We will be approaching the parish council about this matter. We feel we want to put money into community projects, such as the parish council's Christmas lights campaign, but we will be asking for some input as a group."

Mr Giddings said forum members had supported the Christmas lights campaign in recent years, and appreciated the work put in by certain individuals in the community to secure lights.

However, he said forum members wanted a greater say and confessed there had been a sense of disappointment that the 1999 display had failed to live up to expectations.

A small Forum sub-group has been formed although Mr Giddings said the fundraising idea was still in its infancy.

Miggy Bailey, Ilkley Parish Council clerk, said: "I think the parish council would welcome more involvement by the forum."

Mrs Bailey accepted the forum should rightly expect to have an input if it was hoping to generate such a substantial amount of money.

"Hopefully, if we start early enough and have money in the bank, it might avoid us experiencing a mad scramble at the end of the year," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.