SIR – When Ilkley Tennis Club last applied for planning permission, some years ago, a great opportunity was missed to require (as a planning gain for the community) that the Dales Way should be routed along the riverbank past the club.

At the moment the Dales Way (which is of considerable economic importance to the town) goes for a couple of hundred yards along the river bank and then down an unpleasant road, shared with cars, through a car park and then across a number of dull, and often muddy, fields before it rejoins the river bank halfway to Addingham.

It would be much better if it were routed along the riverbank all the way. This could easily be achieved by taking it up the side of the tennis club, behind their building and on to the joint path through the new piece of woodland created by the golf club.

Any planning permission now granted to the tennis club should be conditional on the creation of a new riverside path for the Dales Way.

Owen Wells, Eaton Road, Ilkley