Father and son team Callum and Nigel Francis are standing as Independent candidates in the Danefield Ward for the Otley Town Council Election on Thursday May 4.

Callum said: “I am delighted to be standing with my father in the upcoming Town Council Election and I wish to carry on the Francis tradition of truth, honesty and sincerity. “I have lived in Otley all my life and over the past few years I have witnessed the decline of our once thriving market town into the run down and depressed state it is in today. We have all witnessed the appalling way the Civic Centre has been allowed to fall into disrepair.” He added that shops and businesses in the town are shutting down and bemoaned the reduction of banking facilities in Otley.

He also said: “I am passionate about our green spaces and wildlife within the close proximity of our town, yet the present plan East of Otley will destroy a large part of our valley and there appears to be no one who is prepared to stand up and fight to preserve our inheritance.”

His dad Nigel Francis has been on the Town Council for many years and said of his achievements: “I started charity work and fund raising with my sister over 55 years ago with a stall under the Buttercross for Yorkshire Riding for the Disabled. Since then I have gone on to raise somewhere in the region of £1m for charities, groups and organisations.”

He added that he had re-formed in the early 1990s the South East Otley Residents Association to fight the development East of Otley and to preserve the wildlife and rural aspects of the valley. Nigel said: “Over the years we have been committed to working to improve our Danefield area. We have staged the Otley Vintage Transport Extravaganza for 25 years at Knotford Nook and the very popular Otley Snowman Trail for five years.

“I am most proud of the charity ‘Hang on to a Dream’ which has done over 100 cases for children and young people with serious and life threatening illnesses.”

Nigel Francis has vowed that this will be the last time he is standing for election as over the past three years he has suffered with Covid and Long Covid, as well as numerous other ailments and injuries which have required medical treatment.