Traders' fears for Coach Street plans

We feel that Craven District Council is not fully open and transparent about what is proposed for Coach Street car park and for the rest of Skipton.

The Skipton Renaissance Market Town Initiative is mainly about re-developing the car parks to include multi storey car parks, offices and retail space, including bringing a supermarket in for the Town Hall car park development.

We would be interested to know how many ideas that were put down on paper by residents of Skipton at the Renaissance weekend held in July 2003 are included in the draft document.

Craven District councillors have put the draft document together in assistance from consultants and revolves around the re-development of all three car parks.

Although other bodies have been invited onto the Renaissance committee, including Skipton Chamber of Trade, they have not been able to have any input of influence its content.

Councillors say that parking spaces in Skipton will be maintained at 1,100 but with the residents parking coming into effect in April 2005 at least 500 parking spaces will be needed which leaves 600.

In last week's Craven Herald Jonathan Kerr, who is Craven's director of economic community and customer services, said: "We have already given our commitment to maintaining car park numbers indeed councillors have asked that more spaces are made available" but what he failed to add is that these car parking spaces will be maintained or increased on the Cavendish Street and Town Hall car parks with none maintained or increased on Coach Street car park, especially for tourists. This in turn will adversely effect trade for the surrounding retail businesses.

If these plans go ahead it will mean that Coach Street car park will be out of action for at least 18 months which will cause disruption and traffic problems for this area.

Coach Street is narrow and a one way street and you can imagine the impact this will have with traffic flow around this area, an area that has four schools, the disruption and chaos is obvious.

As one of the organisers of Skipton's Medieval Festivals you only have to look at what a draw Skipton is to visitors over those days to know that Skipton has got it right, and that it just needs 'tweaking' not a massive development that could potentially harm Skipton's future.

Consider this: Two multi storey car parks, one on Cavendish Car Park and one on the Town Hall Car park plus a joint service centre on Coach Street car park - is this what Skipton people really want? Is it what you want?

The Skipton businesses of this area will hold regular meetings which will be open to all businesses and residents, and we would be happy to see you.

Our next meeting is being held in a place where there are only 40 seats please contact Mrs Evans on 01756 796701- e-mail omskipton@hildon.co.uk for more information or if you would like to attend, if necessary we will arrange for a bigger venue.

Joan Evans,

Oswaldtwistle Mills,

Coach Street, Skipton.

Editor's note: Craven's chief executive Gill Dixon said that the proposals would go out to full consultation with the public in November.

Contradiction

SIR - I too share the concerns of Skipton's Chamber of Trade (article September 17) regarding the council's plans to build on Coach Street car park.

In one respect the council is right - Skipton desperately needs more parking space. But their plans to build council premises on one of the town's largest and most popular car parks is a complete contradiction.

To move the entire town's parking to the High Street and Cavendish Street car parks is madness. Skipton High Street already has to deal with a great quantity of traffic. To redirect all parking to these two car parks will only increase congestion.

Then to rebuild our beautiful Town Hall and library on Coach Street car park in order to justify moving their offices into the town centre seems to me an utter waste of funds.

Not to mention the damage that the removal of local and visitor parking will do to many small businesses depending on Coach Street car park's trade.

Skipton businesses have grown around its car parks - to completely reinvent them now would carry huge implications for the town.

Rumours regarding these plans are rife, so why must the council delay public consultation until they are a done deal? Surely it is the ratepayers of Skipton who own the land. These secretive plans do not give people confidence that the council is acting in our best interests.

Christine Hodgson,

Coffee Care,

Coach Street, Skipton.

Flaws in plan

SIR- I am writing with regard to the proposed building project on the Coach Street car park. From what I understand, it has been suggested that a vast new building be erected which will incorporate all services and amenities for the town.

In addition to this, multi-storey car parking will be available at the site.

In theory it sounds a reasonable proposition. In practice, however, I can see several flaws. My husband and I set up a new business on Coach Street four months ago. We are chugging along nicely, building up a good reputation and getting a nice following of locals who are rapidly becoming regulars.

The summer has been fairly kind to us because of the number of visitors to the town. However, as with all new business ventures, a lot of expense was incurred in setting up. All our savings went into the project and we have to make it work.

It was with a certain amount of alarm then that we heard of the plans of the council. With a public building there, which will be employing a vast number of people, do you really think that the car parking will be increased? I think not. Employees who all drive to work will take it up. And with the best will in the world, it is doubtful that the number of spaces will be increased so greatly as to compensate for this.

Car parking, as all residents of Skipton are aware, is in short supply anyway. It seems ludicrous to me to even consider it when there surely must be other sites available which would cause the minimum of disruption. What happens to the existing offices in Granville Street?

And whilst the thing is being built, what happens to all the retailers on Coach Street? We are tucked away enough and have to work hard to encourage people off the high street.

One of the attractions is the canal. It won't be quite so appealing when there is a building site ripping up the car park then, when completed, an ugly multi storey building blocking out the light and the view.

I am sure that many other people feel as I do, if not for the same reasons. I would be very anxious to know exactly what the public feeling is about this. Certainly, all the people I have discussed it with have no faith in the idea at all.

It is about time that the people of Skipton were given the full picture and be allowed to judge for themselves whether or not this would be a benefit to the town.

Jenny Aulton,

Pan Loafy's Restaurant,

Coach Street, Skipton.

Town is strangled

SIR - Skipton needs a great deal more parking than we have now, probably at least four times as much if we are to have residents parking.

Skipton is strangled at the moment by the lack of it. Skipton's opening hours are getting shorter each year. I feel this is a direct result of the lack of parking spaces and charges for them.

To build buildings the size required on Coach Street car parks to accommodate all their dreams is far bigger than I think most people would ever imagine. On talking to one of our councillors it would appear that their vision is to go as high (if required) as the roof line of Victoria Mill.

I think that Skipton residents should demand that their vision/plans are put on the table to see. After all, Craven District Council is there for the majority not elected. Has any thought been given to how many of our small businesses can survive in business while this massive construction work is undertaken?

Ian Clarke

Castle Street, Skipton.

Boating fears

SIR - I have been requested by the Craven Cruising Club's committee to express our concern with regard to the proposed development Coach Street development, which will be adjacent to the club's moorings.

Our main concern is the lack of information and what appears to be a cloak of secrecy surrounding the details of the development. At a meeting which I attended it was indicated that the proposed new building could reach the same height as the mill apartments opposite, being sandwiched between the two is not an appealing prospect, perhaps to be known as the Leeds-Liverpool Canal's version of the Grand Canyon!

While the club has no direct financial interest in whether the development does or does not take place, it does seem odd to place a building in the centre of a tourist town that will be deserted at weekends and evenings.

CJ Mason,

Mooring Master,

Skipton Town Moorings.

Watson's Houses, Skipton

Cheap alternative

SIR - The planning committee of Craven District Council has, in its infinite wisdom, and on the advice of the equally wise officers of the planning department, voted to reject the application from Lidl Foodstores to build a store on land on Keighley Road, Skipton.

Apparently the justification for the rejection was, on the one hand to try to protect existing small businesses in the town centre from further threatening competition, and on the other to attempt to follow a Government directive to convince shoppers to abandon their cars and to shop, on foot, in town centres.

So much for the Government's belief in "market forces".

Although these motives are very laudable, they fail to recognise that the viability of many such town-centre businesses has already been undermined by the very two town-centre giants of retail shopping, namely Tesco and Morrison, for whose supermarkets planning permission was granted by none other than the aforementioned planning committee, on the advice of the self-same planning officers. And all at public expense, and out of the ratepayers' pockets.

The old adage of stable doors and bolting horses comes to mind.

It seems simply incredible that these paid employees and expenses-supported elected councillors can ignore the needs of residents in the Craven area by denying the latter from having one small good value foodstore.

One of the issues that I cannot reconcile is why other neighbouring local authorities, also presumably endeavouring to implement the same Government policies, find themselves able to permit companies such as Lidl, Aldi and Netto to build edge-of-town foodstores.

You have to look no further than Keighley, Blackburn, Accrington, Preston, Morecambe, Kendal to find an abundance of such stores, many of which are frequented by Craven residents who drive out of Skipton in their search for a good selection of excellent quality food, sold at reasonable prices in a compact, non-threatening, easily-navigated, rapidly-negotiated and very pleasant retail environment.

Readers of the Herald are constantly reminded that the economy of the Craven area is essentially a low-wage one, while expensively-funded wasteful initiatives such as the current Renaissance project talk endlessly about creating better-paid jobs, but little ever comes of them.

If you doubt the veracity of this statement you only have to scan the columns of the 'Situations Vacant' pages for the proof.

Small foodstores such as Lidl and Aldi etc are hugely successful on the mainland of Europe - the 5,500 Lidls alone testify to this success. They are a Godsend to low-income families, retired people, single-parent households on fixed incomes, let alone the millions of discriminating shoppers who are just world-weary of the overwhelming wall-to-wall obscene excesses of the supermarkets

Many shoppers are again discovering that "small is beautiful" particularly when one can buy three weeks' worth of good food at the same price as it would cost for two elsewhere - petrol or bus fare included.

For my part I am content in the knowledge that in 12 years of retirement I have not spent one penny in the supermarkets of Skipton or in any other shop in Skipton for that matter. Instead I regularly travel to one or another of the more politically enlightened towns mentioned earlier to spend my pension.

Had the Craven planners permitted Lidl to come to Settle I would have jumped at the chance to shop locally. I might even have spent some money in the town centre en route.

Two further questions haunt me. Firstly, bearing in mind the Government's desire to restrict shopping by car and to stimulate good old-fashioned shopping on foot, will the planners require the "big two" in Skipton to reduce the size of their car-parks and, secondly, should Lidl be successful in finding a suitable site nearer the town centre, maybe even on a part of Morrison's soon-to-be-surplus-to-requirements car-park, would the planners approve an application from Lidl to set up business there? Or is there a hidden agenda somewhere... to keep Skipton looking "middle class"?

Putting my money where my mouth and pen are..

Norris Lockley,

Albert Hill,

Settle.

Hit the idle

SIR - The majority of the dry stone walls in your picture on the back page of the front section of the Craven Herald on September 17 are nothing to do with the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

They are maintained by Messers Hall, Gamble and Schindler in the course of their everyday farming work. Perhaps it is time the national park changes its ideas and rewarded conscientious farmers and hit the idle ones where it hurts - in their pockets.

Anita Hall,

Holly Tree Farm, Thorpe.

Plastic problem

SIR - With regards to the recent Craven Herald editorial, I agree that industry needs to take responsibility for the excessive product packaging they produce.

Consumers definitely need to do their bit and recycle plastic/paper packaging but they don't make all this stuff, industry does.

As you say, why not put a 5p charge on supermarket plastic bags? The Irish government recently made supermarkets put a charge on plastic bags which reduced demand by 90 per cent over the first three months.

Apparently, overnight plastic bags disappeared from the Irish countryside. We have just returned from a holiday in Ireland. Tesco stores there charge their customers for plastic carrier bags and it was obvious people responded to this by bringing in their own re-usable carrier bags etc.

It would be good to see Tesco in Skipton and across the UK charge for plastic bags like Tesco Ireland. Tesco UK could take the initiative for themselves on this but, with an eye on their competitors, I doubt they will.

So let's hope the UK government shows leadership on this matter and sends out the economic signals that encourage all UK supermarkets to cut down on excessive production of packaging and to minimise the use of disposable plastic carrier bags.

Then hopefully there will be less of this stuff for councils and consumers to recycle.

Craig Johnson,

Otley Street, Skipton.

More bridleways

SIR - I am a 12-year-old horse rider and I am really upset about reading the article about Sophie and her pony, Mr Chuckles (Craven Herald September 24).

I also think that since this accident some more bridleways should be opened to save anything like this happening in the future.

If anything was to happen to Biscuit, my pony, I don't know what I would do.

Since reading the article I have joined Trawden Forest and Borders Bridleway Association and everyone there is working together to try to get some new bridleways open.

Gabby Pereira,

Longroyd Road, Earby.

Underfunding

SIR - Could you please alert all friends of Airedale and the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, of the reason why they are underfunded.

Airedale has closed hospitals and not increased beds, now they are closing wards and axing staff. The Yorkshire Dales National Park has never been properly funded by the NHS. They only allow for "seasonal funding".

Over 25 years ago, Dr Mayberley was refused facilities for in-patients, suffering from chemical allergies. He could have been a trail-blazer, and all because visitors to the national park have not had their health needs funded.

Fifty years ago there were only 45,000 visitors to the park but last year there was 11 million. We all know how they have accidents, they need hospital care. The hospitals are, in the case of Hawes, 40 miles away. Too far for back-up care for the Primary Care team. There will be only skeleton care at weekends.

There should be a hospital within the national park to include an allergy unit in the clear Dales air instead of going to polluted Leeds, and which would relieve the pressure on Airedale.

One main problem is that Wensleydale and Swaledale have been put into the south Tees area of the NHS so we have been divided and there can be no common policy.

Friarage Hospital is only 20 miles from Darlington but Yorkshire patients have to go 50 miles.

All the primary care trusts using Airedale need to act and challenge the civil servants who are too far away. MP David Curry agrees that Airedale is underfunded.

Miss M Metcalfe

(retired nurse),

Moor View, Threshfield.