Since Otley came under the administration of Leeds City Council in 1974 and despite its distance from Leeds, links have naturally been forged between Otley and Leeds. Otley Conservation Task Force has therefore developed close dialogue with the conservation team at Leeds City Council (follow the web-link below) since our inception in 1997, as witnessed for example in English Heritage/ Leeds City Council’s Conservation Area Partnership Scheme (CAPS) of the late 1990s and development of Otley Conservation Area Appraisal in the years leading up to its adoption by Leeds City Council in 2003. In more recent years, Leeds Civic Trust has taken an interest in what Otley Conservation Task Force does and provides encouragement to what we do in Otley, although Otley Conservation Task Force is not affiliated to Leeds Civic Trust.

We would like to see liaison with our city neighbours, especially Leeds City Council, as being constructive and more of a partnership, but this has been less than satisfactory in the last few years with the onset of themes and ideas being imposed on Otley through city-thinking. It has led to a relationship that has become uncomfortable, the resulting conflict tying up our limited resources so they cannot be used to promote conservation for real. This has driven home to us the importance of taking part in consultations that affect the way policies are shaped (such as the Leeds SCI in 2006 and the current Leeds LDF), bearing in mind that planning and development are determined by city councillors and council departments that are influenced strongly by city thinking. We sincerely hope this state of affairs can be greatly improved, in the interests of the well-being of Otley Conservation Area and Otley generally.

Otley Conservation Task Force has been affiliated to Otley Town Partnership, whose offices are in Otley Courthouse (see above aerial photograph), for several years, and we have an officer dedicated to liaison with Otley Town Partnership. Several other members also sit on the main steering groups, in particular the Environment Group where matters closely related to conservation are dealt with. We worked closely with the Market Towns Initiative (MTI), which was secured through Otley Town Partnership and ran from 2002 to 2005, and was instigated by Yorkshire Forward and the Countryside Agency. The link below is to Otley Town Partnership’s web-site:

A key spatial priority identified in the draft “Yorkshire and Humber Plan” Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) issued in 2005 is to “Support towns as hubs for the rural economy and as service centres”. The haphazard circumstance of certain rural areas such as the Otley district since 1974 being considered as part of Leeds in the first instance is probably unfortunate. The history and character of Otley are about as different from Leeds as they are from anywhere else. The recently issued draft Leeds LDF recognises that “the rural economy is the lifeblood that sustains [remote rural] communities and gives them self-sufficiency”, adding that “free-standing market towns such as Otley play an important local rôle” in this regard.

Of particular concern currently in Otley is the invasion by stealth of “big city ideas” in the town, especially the conservation area. Indeed, this was the theme of a short presentation given by Otley Conservation Task Force to Leeds Civic Trust at a recent conference. If allowed to continue as it has in recent years, Otley will become a dormitory facility for distant Leeds, and lose its distinctive character and rightful rôle in serving its real hinterland: the hills and fields of rural Wharfedale. With this as a background, and with the certain onslaught of rocketing oil prices and scarcity of fuel for transport in the foreseeable future and having lost its industrial base, Otley and similar towns that happen by accident now to be labelled as “Leeds” must be encouraged to maintain their agricultural service industry. Loss of the Bridge End cattle market post-BSE in 2000, the effects of foot-and mouth disease in 2001 and the soon-to-be-lost slaughterhouse (to make way for a supermarket, ironically) are tangible reminders of how fragile Otley’s historically important agricultural industry is, in the face of urbanisation and modern convenience living. Maintaining Otley’s traditional facets will serve to boost and conserve Otley as a thriving market town.

Otley’s hinterland, especially to the north, east and west (all being in North Yorkshire, beyond the control of Leeds), relies on Otley remaining as a distinctive market town to serve this hinterland. The draft RSS seeks to “Safeguard the rural setting of the communities of the South Pennines and those to the north of Bradford and Leeds”, and goes further, by considering the countryside around Otley to be an “Area of High Quality Environment” (see above photograph). This is supported by a statement in the Leeds City Region Sub Area Policy in the draft RSS that confirms it seeks to “Preserve and enhance the Nidderdale AONB”. Otley Conservation Task Force has therefore begun to develop a dialogue with Nidderdale AONB, which includes the Washburn valley and parts of Whardefale, and on whose southern fringe Otley lies. The link below is to Nidderdale AONB’s web-site:

In the recent past, Otley Conservation Task Force has enjoyed a growing liaison with Yorkshire and Humber Association of Civic Societies (YHACS), although we are not presently a member group. Otley Conservation Area has already started to benefit significantly from advice and support that YHACS has provided, but for us to want this to develop, it would mean a larger and more dedicated committee, a topic that is presently being discussed.

We also have a dialogue with several action groups in the town (some of these are discussed elsewhere on this web-site), and groups such as Otley Community Council plus, from further afield, the Environment Forum of Leeds Voice. Dialogue with other community groups helps Otley Conservation Task Force to refresh ideas and objectives as well as permit us to ensure that conservation of the built environment in Otley is considered at every opportunity.

Since our beginning, as conservation naturally involves research into Otley’s older buildings, there are often times where Otley Museum is consulted. Sometimes our own research establishes new historical information mainly about buildings and sites, and so there are occasions where we are able to present this to Otley Museum. Details of Otley Museum can be found via the following link: