CITY council chiefs are bowing to massive public pressure and have agreed to change the controversial 'Welcome to Leeds' signs on roads into Otley.

But the £1,000-a-time signs will still have the wording ' Welcome to Leeds' - the only change being the extra word 'Otley' tacked on to the bottom.

Now, a major row has broken out between councillors who are questioning who made the decision in the first place and why was it made at all.

And some are already saying that the changes to the signs are not good enough and the additions - which are likely to include places like Pool-in-Wharfedale and Aireborough - will just make them worse.

Almost 3,000 people have signed the Wharfedale Observer's petition against the road signs which have sprung up around Otley as well as in other parts of Wharfedale and across the Leeds district.

Our petition was accepted on behalf of the town this week by new Town Mayor Councillor John Eveleigh, who is presenting it to Leeds City Council's chairman of the development services committee, Councillor Keith Wakefield.

Coun Eveleigh welcomed moves by Leeds Council to change the signs but added the additions would have to be seen first by the town council to make sure they were acceptable.

"It is fairly traditional for metropolitan districts to mark their district, but what has got up people's noses is that there was no recognition of Otley," he said.

"Unfortunately, a lot of this could have been avoided if there had been some proper consultation at the time."

Councillor Phil Coyne (Lab) pointed out the signs were first approved at a meeting of the council's highways committee in 1997 of which Otley and Wharfedale councillor Graham Kirkland (Lib Dem) was a member. "Coun Kirkland would certainly have been fully informed of the proposals of the signs, but he did not make did not make any objections to the proposed boundary signs when it mattered," said Coun Coyne.

Coun Kirkland admitted he hadn't objected to the signs at the meeting.

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