I WRITE in response to your story about claims HGVs are using East Morton as a “rat run to avoid Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges”, which it turns out are incorrect.

My two colleagues and I have received many complaints about increased HGV movements from residents in the village, who have quite rightly been concerned and worried about not only their peace being broken but also the safety of drivers and pedestrians, particularly children.

As district councillors for Keighley East, we’ve been working hard to get to the bottom of the problem.

We asked Bradford Council officers to investigate, and we let residents know that until the results were known we could not determine the cause of the problem or try to solve it.

Sadly the MP loves to be the first to point the finger of blame at Bradford Council, whether it’s anything to do with the council or not, and, true to type, he was quick to blame the CAZ as the root cause.

However, if he had looked at the matter properly as we did, then he would have quickly discovered the vast majority of the vehicles were CAZ compliant so have no reason to avoid the CAZ – information that we fed back to residents early on.

Officers have now conducted their investigations with two HGV firms named to us. They discovered one firm is delivering soil from Guiseley to a development in Keighley. It is three-quarters of the way through this contract with approximately two months to go. For them, driving through East Morton is simply based on the quickest A-to-B route. The other firm is delivering material to housing sites in Menston. Again, this is a short-term contract that will last a further two to three weeks and it is using the quickest route from A to B from Skipton.

Both firms have CAZ-compliant fleets. There is no link to CAZ avoidance. The firms have been contacted by council officers and all drivers have been asked to be mindful of the village and drive appropriately and at low speed.

Therefore, having looked at the facts, the problem should be short term. Obviously it has been a trying time for residents, and as their councillors we will do all we can to support them.

Councillor Caroline Firth, Labour, Keighley East ward

* Email your letters to alistair.shand@keighleynews.co.uk