It is always good to see a local MP taking a keen interest in the local environment. Shipley MP Chris Leslie has done well in that respect in recent months. But he might have picked the wrong target by blasting off at some of the businesses on Bingley Road and Gordon Terrace at Saltaire.

He claims that the gaudy frontages of two shops - a newly-opened bookie's and a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet - and The Rosse pub sometimes make him feel that he is living in Disneyland. He is backed by the chairman of Saltaire Civic Society who says that it would be nice if the borders of Saltaire were sympathetic to the character of the village.

There is nothing wrong with that wish. It is right to want to preserve the character of Saltaire village and commendable to hope that that character will influence the streets on its fringes. But that aesthetic ambition has to strike a compromise with the harsh commercial reality: that to attract customers in what is Saltaire's main shopping thoroughfare, some businesses feel they need to present a bold and sometimes garish face to the world.

These things are subjective. What upsets Chris Leslie and some of the residents of Saltaire might be considered merely bright and cheerful by other people. There are, after all, many worse-looking shopping centres than Saltaire. If it was being overtaken by the sort of cheap bargain shops that abound in the centre of Bradford and some parts of Skipton, or if it was blighted by empty premises, there would surely be greater grounds for complaint.

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