Letters to the Editor

there are some simple solutions

SIR, - It is difficult to understand how the traffic lights on Skipton Road at the bottom of Victoria Avenue in Ilkley can be described as 'reducing congestion'.

The problem in that area was the obstruction that traffic travelling from the Addingham direction caused when turning right up Victoria Avenue. One vehicle would hold up many vehicles.

The simplest way of solving that problem would have been to buy a small portion of the field at the side of the road, in order to widen the road and allow the traffic to swing around any vehicles in the middle of the road waiting to turn right.

This problem has been seriously exacerbated with the traffic lights, and now one car coming out of Victoria Avenue can hold up 40 or 50 cars at peak times and often ten or more cars during the day.

The quality of life for those driving at peak times, or holidaymakers passing through Ilkley, is damaged either daily or infrequently by being so delayed.

On the assumption that highways will not adopt the above suggestion, and immediate improvement could be made by making that junction 'No right turn' for traffic travelling from Addingham in the direction of Ilkley.

They could then turn right at Easby Drive where Skipton Road is wide enough to avoid any of these vehicles holding up other moving traffic. Easby Drive is adequately wide enough to be a safer access for them.

In fact, there is already provision for right turning traffic at that junction.

When it comes to congestion in Ilkley, the closing of Castle Road some years ago aggravated that situation because some people travelling to Middleton would avoid the traffic light by going down Castle Road, and they are now forced through the funnel of the traffic lights on Skipton Road and Brook Street.

I cannot imagine how the road narrowing schemes in the centre of Ilkley can ease congestion. I would have thought that if anything they cause a hindrance. The latest ones, at the junction of Wells Road and Station Road, seem to have no logic whatsoever. It was not long ago that, at enormous expense, the pavement was relaid and now we have Tarmac extensions!

Could it be that all this work, at the end of the financial year, as usual, is to expend the budget monies to ensure that the same monies will be available to fritter away next year?

P WHITAKER

The Grove,

Ilkley.

Egg protest

SIR, - About the recent debate surrounding the 'Hen Hut': Mr Kitching's defence when confronted by protesters was to say that they were all 'crack-pots' and 'on the dole' and that they - apparently like the rest of us who are against battery farming - are 'brain-washed by TV'.

These protesters are not animal rights activists out to make trouble but normal local people with good principles. Many of the protesters are members of 'Compassion in World Farming' - an organisation dedicated to humane treatment of animals and fair deals for farmers.

So who better to have a sound, informed opinion than these people?

MR J ATKINSON

Ben Rhydding.

Final word

SIR, - Following your account of Ilkley's victory in the semi-final of the Yorkshire Cup at Lidget Green 75 years ago, one may perhaps continue the story to its climax, the final at Cross Green, Otley, our opponents on the day, Halifax.

Halifax were not on our regular fixture list though we had played them from time to time. They were one of the strongest sides in Yorkshire, boasting two or three county men while we had only one, our captain Eddie Ryecroft, a fast and clever left wing, but at a mere nine stones very sparely-built and liable to injury and there were no substitutes in those days.

Anyhow, we were not dismayed at the prospect of Halifax, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall' became our attitude.

Team morale was boosted, too,when the people of Ilkley suddenly became aware of it's team's success and Cup Final fever swept the town. Everyone was talking about the coming match, team members became celebrities, schoolboys took their caps off to us in the street and the New Cinema even produced a short film with brief pictures of individual players with short snatches of earlier matches.

The big day was dry and bright, a marked contrast to our earlier visit to Cross Green. The crowd was said to be above 5,000 - a record - mostly composed of Ilkley people in holiday mood, and the takings £274. Just think of that for an amateur game.

At half time the score was slightly in our favour at 4-3 thanks to a cool drop-goal by Gordon Crawshaw and our prospects quite good. Alas for fond hopes. The second half was quite a different story, most of it spent in the Ilkley half. We were gradually worn down and well beaten by a better and stronger side, the final score Halifax 17, Ilkley 4. We came away from Cross Green the losing side and quickly forgotten.

That then was the story of Ilkley RUFC in the cup competition of 1930, 75 years ago. How, I wonder, have the lads from Stacks field done in the Cup in the 75 years since.

C L DAVIDSON

Lowfield Lane,

Beamsley.

Flag day bid

SIR, - I see from the Gazette of April 7 that Ilkley Parish Council has decided not to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two by making donations to two ex-service charities which provide help for those who were blinded or crippled in defence of the freedom of our country. A truly sorry state of affairs.

However, help from those charities was recognised as the worthwhile cause that it truly is; and there were councillors who said they were keen to support causes that helped war veterans. There was also the suggestion of a flag day.

Well, two ex-service charities that do help war veterans have been brought to the council's notice; and the parish council is well placed to organise a flag day for those two charities.

The council has the organisation and energy to cope with arranging collections, recruiting collectors, overseeing the collection and banking of all monies collected, and sending what is collected to those two charities. The council also has the necessary status, because it represents the people of Ilkley and district.

This would be a fine lead for the council to give to the parish. The news of it might lead to other parishes to do the same.

It would mean that the people of Ilkley and district had recognised that the freedoms that are enjoyed by everybody in our country today were saved by the sacrifices that were made by men and women who are now in their eighties and more.

As one of the veterans of that war, I am certain that other veterans who live in the parish would heartily welcome the parish council showing leadership in acknowledging those sacrifices by organising a flag day so as to send money to help those two charities. I am writing to the chairman to urge that the parish council does give that lead to the parish.

EDWIN SCHIRN

Ilkley.