Readers' dismay at state of village

When I came to Ingleton, 70 years ago, this was a beautiful little village and look at it now. They are allowing house building anywhere, although they're not building "old people's" houses for Ingleton.

We have lost a very good hotel to more houses. As I write this letter, there are 38 more houses being built on a 'green field' site. They don't care when they block out any one's long-standing view.

I think the planning committee doesn't care anymore about green fields, (although they may make a token gesture and want to keep overgrown pine trees, that are in possible danger of falling, rather than planting more suitable types of tree).

Why won't they listen to us, the people of Ingleton, the forgotten few? Perhaps it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind".

It's a great pity that we are not in the National Park as this would not have happened.

What makes these planners tick?, We're sure they just don't care. We're just as sure that builders also don't care about the local people, just as long as their wallets get fatter. The planners always think they know better than the locals, and that is the reason for writing this letter.

John Clapham

Malt Dubs Close, Ingleton.

SIR - It is quite some years since I visited Ingleton. What a change - and not for the better!

First the entrance from the A65 to Laundry Lane is awful. I was behind four large articulated lorries of the "tipper" kind. What fun - me stuck behind these behemoths with more HGVs waiting.

I ventured up the B6255 to enter the village: No entry! I never saw any signs until then as I was in an HGV sandwich.

Anyway, I eventually got on to the car park. Where was everyone at the community centre? Not a soul in it, what a waste.

Worse to come, no shops save 1 Co-op, 1 newsagents and a sweet shop, yes, I'm sorry a fruit and veg shop. The sweet shop was going to be sold, a bookshop was closing, no shops in the square or the upper village or indeed down Back Gate.

Plenty of rubbish though, dog fouling, empty or part full cans and bottles of alcohol.

The cemetery was vandalised. You have to walk down a steep hill to the toilets if you are not near the centre. Dear me, Ingleton.

I saw a huge mound of earth and, asking a local, she said they were building houses there despite everyone's objections and then she told me that most Ingleton people want the one way system reversed and indeed had sent a petition off, to no avail.

To sum up, few shops, horrid pavements, houses built despite protests, a one way, wrong way system.

Sorry, but I for one will never visit Ingleton again.

I will certainly come to Settle again. Now Settle I cannot complain about. Sure, there are HGVs but there are three crossings.

Mr S Morris,

Brooksby Street,

London N1

SIR - Walking down to my local newsagents in Grassington on Friday, to collect the Craven Herald, I was taken aback to see a bill board outside the shop announcing that "Grassington Taxi may quit under new rules."

Inside the paper I soon found an accompanying article proclaiming that Grassington's sole taxi firm may cease. Reading on I learnt that Mark Stuart-Clarke owner of Horseless Carriage Services may stop offering his private hire service because Craven District council are introducing an additional test for taxi drivers.

For the last 18 months I have been running Grassington Taxis based in the village. My private hire service has been providing a much needed personally run taxi for pensioners, holiday makers and locals looking for a taxi to the airport or peace of mind for a night out without worrying about that extra drink.

I have no qualms about taking an extra test, as I have a clean licence also a HGV 1 Licence. Many locals, aware of my popular and friendly business, were upset to read the article and I think that a newspaper with a largely local appeal should take more care to get its facts straight.

Richard Elliott,

Grassington Taxis,

Hardy Grange, Grassington.

SIR - The line you take in your editorial of April 8 ('Preserve Sanctity of the Ballot Box') seems a little over-the-top.

I cannot accept that the criminal activities of a very few people should deprive the majority of people from having a choice in the way in which they vote. For me the important element is that we learn by these events and improve safeguards, which is what the Electoral Commission is attempting to do.

Those who were involved in the election fraud in Birmingham and Blackburn last year deserve their punishment. However, the reference in the editorial to widespread fraud is very wide of the mark.

The evidence available suggests that such fraud is rare, although in my view any fraud of this nature is unacceptable as it affects confidence in the democratic process. To put matters in perspective, the case in Birmingham related to just two out of 6,000 wards that were contested at the June 2004 elections.

Postal (and proxy) voting has been available to electors since I was involved in my first election in 1970. The introduction of postal voting on demand is not just about turnout at elections, it is also about increasing the number of ways in which we can cast our vote at elections.

The right to vote is valuable and people who want to vote should be given every reasonable opportunity to do so.

Many of our customs and practices are based upon trust, including large parts of the electoral process. For example, how many of us have ever been asked to give proof of identity when going into a polling station to vote. Clearly we need to have safeguards in place to try to prevent fraud, but they cannot be absolute.

The independent Electoral Commission has rejected any question of withdrawing postal ballots for the General Election.

Electoral fraud is serious and the Commission, the police, political parties and returning officers are working to raise awareness and strengthen the systems to ensure that fraud is detected and prosecuted.

There are quite tough penalties in place already and electoral fraudsters can face up to two years in jail or an unlimited fine. Our top priority as electoral administrators is to safeguard the integrity of the ballot.

There is the potential for fraud to occur throughout the electoral process, but there is little evidence of serious or sustained attempts at fraud, although the potential exists in every walk of life, and vigilance is essential.

The important duty for everyone on May 5 is to cast their vote using one of the means allowed by law, which includes postal and proxy voting.

I would like to reassure electors in Skipton and Ripon constituency that we will do our best to try and ensure that electors are able to cast their votes by whatever means they choose. If anyone has suspicions around any aspect of the election, I would encourage them to tell me about it or report it to the police.

Colin Iveson,

Acting Returning Officer,

Skipton and Ripon Constituency.

SIR - Reading the Craven Herald last week, isn't it time the council, Novo Homes and Skipton Building Society sat around a table and talked about what each one has to offer the other.

The council needs a new joint service centre, the building society needs new offices for the HML part of its business and Novo Homes need to build and convert existing property.

Novo could convert the five storey block at Dewhurst's Mill into council offices, the first and ground floor into car parking for staff and visitors.

Now that land on the edge of town is no longer needed, come in HML and build your new offices on the outskirts.

We are left with the old Granville Street offices and HML building in the town centre; a job for Novo Homes to turn into flats and houses. Flats might be retained by the building society for their own work force.

A Holliday,

Wheatlands Ave, Gargrave.

SIR - To all parents, guardians of 16+ Students. Soon the EMA (education maintenance allowance) forms will be arriving through the post or via schools for your 16 + youngsters to apply for a weekly maintenance allowance if they decide to stay on in further education.

Just a word of warning here, do not rely on this grant being given and don't expect to get anything from it.

To try to get some help to see our daughter through residential college, I applied to the EMA board and spent eight weeks filling in forms, writing letters and making numerous phone calls trying to get the correct information etc.

At the same time I was struggling with the extensive and personally intrusive paperwork for the North Yorkshire County Council grant applications, which eventually ended in the bin.

Eight weeks later, in October 04 (after the start of term), I received two letters from the EMA on the same day. Letter No 1 was to say our application had been received and they would inform me of their decision; Letter No 2 stated that our daughter was not eligible for the EMA because "the young person does not live in one of the former pilot areas".

A phone call to the EMA office brought little success and why, I asked, had I not been informed in the very first instant on application that our daughter was not eligible when the postcode was on the letter?

If EMA is available for some students it should be available for all. By this time of course the deadline for the NYCC grant was past and so we have ended up with no government or Local Education Authority assistance to help our youngster through college.

So to all parents, in the first instant a phone call to the EMA may save you a lot of time and effort and stop your youngsters from been disappointed by yet another of this Government's "empty" promises.

T Whitham,

Hebden.

SIR - Some weeks ago through the Craven Herald I congratulated a Bolton Abbey farmer on his new venture and his compassion for animals.

I now write about a farm about five miles away on the hills above Ilkley, which has been running an illegal halal slaughter house with unbelievable cruelty and no hygiene standards whatsoever.

A multi-agency raid was carried out on the farm and found the utmost cruelty to mainly sheep being slaughtered by an unlicensed slaughterman with blunt knives.

A court case followed, reported in your paper last week, and the farmer got three months (equals six weeks) in prison and his son got the same. The slaughterman got two months (equals four weeks) in prison.

The prosecution asked for costs of £28,000 but the learned judge rejected it. If the judge had awarded costs the farmer would have been £28,000 worse off, so the taxpayer foots the bill. A few weeks rest in prison then back in business.

Please have some pity for the animals which might finish up at his farm. Who says crime and cruelty does not pay? What a message to send out to law-abiding people.

David Scholey,

Belgrave Street, Skipton.

SIR - The problem with Bolton Bridge roundabout is that coming from the Beamsley direction, the left lane is marked for a left turn and straight ahead, the right lane for a right turn.

But cars and vans often use the right lane, as if intending to go to Bolton Abbey village, then cut across to the Skipton lane on the roundabout itself.

Either the double approach lane should be made single or the right one marked Bolton Abbey or B6160 only on the roadway.

Stephen Hogben,

Tarn Moor Crescent, Skipton.

SIR - May I point out an error in the article 'VE Preparations' (Craven Herald April 1).

In my letter to Barnoldswick Town Council I did not say that the Barnoldswick Pensioners Association was planning a funfair (would that we could). I said we are planning "funfair stalls, hoopla, rolling pennies and such".

Elaine Dorcas,

Secretary,

Barnoldswick Old Age Pensioners Association.

SIR - It was very flattering for the people of Craven to have been visited by Prince Charles last month. I remember it happened before in the war years, when royalty stayed a night in the royal train about a mile north of Clapham station. Decades later the then station master told me he still had the dinner menu from the train dining carriage!

Had it not been for the predecessors of the Friends of the Settle Carlisle railway, Prince Charles would have had to cope with a six-lane extension of the M1 motorway all the way from Bingley to Clapham and on to Kendal, plus four other motorways crossing the northern Pennines. And the finance/road/quarry industries are still trying to kill off the railway to make it all happen!

Just think of all the extra jobs it would create and the huge potential for second home affordable housing if only they could succeed!

What they still want is yet more traffic to constipate Craven's existing roads, and to get more traffic, a good way would be to replace those 'clickity-clickity' rail goods wagons that rumble along the Settle Carlisle railway and replace each rail truck with a lorry and driver! It would be a wonderful way of using the £29.3 million quarry money offered by the Government as reported last week! Fast motorways, second homes and more and more cars would be a good way of replacing tourists and people like Prince Charles!

Robert D Leakey for Campaign for Modern Transport

Sutcliffe House, Settle

SIR - Regarding your concerns about the absence of Labour candidates in the forthcoming county council elections. A well-informed source at Westminster explained why.

Tony Blair dies, and when he is met by Saint Peter he is given a choice: upstairs or down below.

"Well, I have been a nice guy all my life," he replies, "I will need to be in heaven."

St Peter lets him in and after two days realises he is on his own. Getting lonely he goes back to St Peter and complains. St Peter takes him down below and, looking through the door, all Tony's mates are there, drinking, dancing and really enjoying themselves.

Tony returns two days later and asks to go down below. St Peter duly returns him below, opens the door and pushes him in. Shock, horror. It's 150 degrees, people are being boiled in oil, their finger and toe nails pulled out with pliers and they look thoroughly miserable.

"St Peter," shouts Tony. "It wasn't like this when you showed me in here, what's going on?"

"Well Tony," replied St Peter, "What you saw before was the party political broadcast!"

Richard Welch,

Conservative Candidate,

Ribblesdale Ward,

North Yorks County Council.