THE decision by the ruling Labour Group on Otley Town Council to put £17,000 into a deal with Metro to dramatically improve bus services in the area is a bold one.

It is, in fact, a daring decision, for it adds 14 per cent to the six per cent rate precept, a figure that would make many a person blanch - and, more importantly for Labour, it comes with the local elections less than four months away.

However, before knees throughout Otley start to jerk, it is worth looking a little further than the bare percentage figures. Firstly, the budget with which the council has to work is, in reality, quite small, and what a 14 per cent rise in the rate precept will mean to most families is about £2.50 in a full year.

Against that cost, we must weigh the benefits under the proposed deal in which Metro will put far more money into the improved bus services than will Otley Town Council and its ratepayers.

As a newspaper, we have been calling for better transport services for a year with our Missing Link campaign which, in particular, urged the authorities to provide a useful bus service to Menston Railway Station. While we would, in the long term, prefer to see the return of the railway station to Otley - and that is not such an outlandish hope - we view a good bus service to the nearest station at Menston as the next best thing.

Therefore, we welcome the news that the Menston link is among the improvements proposed, as is a direct service to Wharfedale General Hospital (wherever its future site may be), plus the return of some services and the introduction of others. Those living on the north side of the river will receive a good share of new services.

All in all, we believe that the deal being thrashed out with Metro represents good value for money. While we sympathise with the Liberal Democrat view that the town council precept should not have to pay towards services previously run by Metro, we have to recognise that we live in the real world.

Without such a deal, there is little likelihood of these improvements being carried out and the people of this area would continue to suffer from inadequate transport services.

We also agree with the council's insistence that if for some reason the proposed deal with Metro breaks down, then the money raised through the rate precept cannot be used for anything else. The Labour group says that in such a case, it will be looking to refund ratepayers.

At this stage the deal looks a good'un.

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