Congratulations to Ilkley for its success in the "Towns" category in the Yorkshire in Bloom competition. A bouquet must go to Hawksworth, too, for taking a closely-run second place in the "Small Villages" category. In fact, the Bradford district did not do too badly at all. Although Bingley and Addingham were not up there among the leaders in their respective categories, they drew complimentary comments from the judges.

These are welcome plaudits, coming as they do on the heels of local success in the Yorkshire Tourist Board awards which we featured yesterday.

The White Rose Award for Tourism Event of the Year, for the British premiere of the film about the Cottingley Fairies, was a deserved pat on the back for the people who have worked very hard to establish Bradford as a district which is ideal for a wide range of film locations. Their efforts not only attract the film crews. They subsequently bring in the tourists too, with money to boost the local economy.

It is a shame that Bradford is unlikely to feature in the "Large Cities" category of Yorkshire in Bloom, which is to be judged in the summer. It has very little to offer at present outside the parks - certainly not enough to do the place justice.

Efforts to clean up the city centre and make it more user-friendly need to be accompanied by more measures to brighten up the place and relieve the starkness of the stone, concrete and brick. Many open areas and streets would benefit enormously from cheerful floral displays, which would help to improve the appeal of the city centre even further.

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