Letters to the Editor

drivers ignoring 'slow' signs

SIR, - Now that school has returned it is increasingly evident that vehicles of all kinds travel at excessive and potentially dangerous speeds on Station Road, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Despite the 29 painted signs advising SLOW and the centre carriageway mini bumps, vehicles frequently pass under the railway bridge at 40 to 50 mph.

Downhill, drivers are then within 70 metres of the bus queue and single lane restriction at Smithy lane, and would have no possibility of stopping if necessary at the crossing for children going to Burley and Woodhead Primary School .

These children are often in company with siblings in push chairs and toddlers.

The same situation is evident at the Langford Lane /Station road junction, where again primary school children going to Burley Oaks face similarly dangerous conditions.

As advice has no effect on drivers, it is high time to impose physical restrictions at these dangerous locations. The only effective speed control on Moor lane is the full width strip at the Robin Hole entry point. This full width carriageway control should be used at a location 15 metres above Hag Farm Lane to slow vehicles on the descent to the railway bridge and also at two positions, 20 metres either side of the Station road /Langford lane intersection.

A 20 mph speed limit should apply to Station Road and be enforced with mobile speed cameras.

I would also like to see the bus stop for schoolchildren moved from Smithy Lane/Station Rd, as the manoeuvring of double decker buses across Station Road, and into the railway station entrance ramp, is an added hazard at this dangerous location.

The buses also obscure the sight line for downhill traffic to the single lane restriction on Station Road. Let us do something immediately to physically control vehicle speed, before we pay a high price for failing to act to protect our children .

Brian Sayer

1 Ash Tree Walk,

Burley in Wharfedale.

Cash mountain

SIR, - What happens to the cash mountain in our parish council bank account when Burley, Ilkley and Menston separate?

Separation could take place next year. By that time, our cash mountain will have grown from £106,000 last March, to about £200,000. That represents more than two years of normal spending.

If our Ilkley Council couldn't find responsible ways of spending our money for us, why should that change between now and the separations?

Copies of the three annual notices sent to Bradford Council by Ilkley Parish have been sent to me. Each notice asks for parish taxes to be levied for the coming year. Instead of using the procedures laid down in the Council Tax law, our council asked for the maximum amount it is permitted to pay out to other local bodies.

And the amount raised has gone up by 64 per cent in just two years leading, inevitably, to the growing cash mountain.

Council Tax law says that councils must estimate their future spending and then deduct their other income and surpluses from previous years. Parish taxes must be no more than is needed to meet the net cost of plans for the coming year.

Who would the cash mountain belong to when we go our separate ways? There is no precedent for allocating parish funds to the new councils, and they might each ask Bradford Council to seek guidance from the Local Government Association.

Perhaps our money should be allocated on a 'per household' basis to the three communities, and taking into account the much lower spending there has been in Burley and Menston? Alternatively, the larger number of properties in Ilkley that are in bands E to H might propose a different allocation.

Moreover, results of consultations about future parish arrangements are not yet published. What if Menston people prefer to be like most British communities and do without any parish council, taxes and all?

We can't change history. Our council took in much more tax than it could spend responsibly. Tax revenues increased enormously and a cash mountain was created.

Hundreds of people have signed a petition recommending that spending and tax plans be published and surpluses returned right away.

Giving a discount from one month's Council Tax is a feasible way of returning our parish surplus. It may even be a lot simpler than negotiating carry-overs to three autonomous parishes that don't exist yet.

ANDREW DUNDAS

Parish Ghyll Drive,

Ilkley.

Poles apart

SIR, - What an interesting contrast in images I saw this beautiful summer's lunchtime.

First a group of ten school children, milling around and clearly well behaved. The headmistress is to be commended on the standards of behaviour ingrained at the Grammar School.

Secondly, a less savory sight- a pair of dubious youths who were clear candidates for a Borstal or enforced conscription, weighing up likely candidates for theft from parked cars, or other foul deeds.

Sadly, in light of the latter group, one can only conclude that Ilkley suffers from a dire shortage of police attendance, which used to include a regular high visibility presence outside Dacre Son & Hartley's office at the foot of Well's Road.

The residents of the town pay more than enough in rates and personal taxation to justifiably expect more intensive policing, to maintain and protect our personal and property rights.

WINSTON NELSON

Robinholme,

Middleton,

Ilkley.

No post haste

SIR, - As far as I can establish, there was no delivery of mail to this area of Ben Rhydding on Friday, September 3, but there were two deliveries on Saturday, September 4, one of which was delayed mail delivered by casual labour.

We were informed earlier this year that the second delivery was being scrapped, but apparently a second delivery is still on the cards as long as it comprises mail which should have been delivered the previous day.

Recently I ordered travel tickets by mail, which arrived by First Class post three working days after the date received by Royal Mail (franked by Royal Mail on reverse of envelope), on the day after the travel had taken place.

My subsequent complaint to Royal Mail, concerning the significant inconvenience caused, resulted in a letter offering no compensation. It states that 'We aim to deliver First Class mail on the next working day after posting' and that 'an item of First Class mail is not classed as delayed unless it is delivered four or more working days after its due date.'

As the 'due' date is one working day after posting, this means that First Class mail is not considered by Royal Mail to be delayed unless it takes SIX or more working days to reach its destination. And that is First Class Mail!

How can Royal Mail even be aiming to deliver one working day after posting if there are days when it does not even have the resources to make a delivery?

Ian Henderson

3 Wheatley Avenue,

Ben Rhydding.

Hunting cruel

SIR, - Mrs Ann Cryer must be feeling a touch miffed. She is in danger of being knocked off her alleged perch of seeming 'to be knowledgable on every topic which surfaces' by arch know-all Victor Bean, who seizes every opportunity to declaim on any subject under the sun, regardless of whether he knows anything about it.

Regarding his latest outpouring objecting to the ban on foxhunting, the bottom line is that foxhunting is cruel and distressing, and it is impossible to understand how anyone can find pleasure in chasing an animal to its death to be ferociously torn to pieces by hounds, or support those who do.

To quote the Daily Mail's statistics, as he does, is laughable. Since when has the Daily Mail ever taken a fair stance on the subject?

How depressing, too, to see the shameful picture of a group of men looking so gleeful over the grouse killing on Ilkley Moor, especially as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds described the shooting as 'ridiculous'.

AUDREY HARGREAVES

6 North Street,

Addingham.

Litter lesson

SIR, - Some years ago a startling yet little known discovery was made by a team researching the effects of landfill on nearby communications.

They found food, drink, cigarette and similar packets or tins double and sometimes triple their weight the less contents they contained. A striking example of this phenomenon has evolved around weekday lunch-time in Ilkley.

Finding relief from the stress and strains of their morning classes, today's students gather in the peace and tranquillity of Mill Ghyll.

It also helps them relieve themselves of containers, paper bags, plastic bottles etc, around but not in the waste bins provided.

Is this an example of the 'couldn't care less, someone else will pick it up' attitude or, has the little known discovery manifested itself in Ilkley?

I could have written to the school principals on the matter but they have enough work as it is. Equally I could have approached the students concerned but doubt they would listen and quite probably answer in the usual manner.

So, may I suggest a relatively harmless solution? The student populace, that is those attending local schools, set about a scientific survey. Their subject: Why is it so difficult to carry empty food and drink containers to nearby waste bins?

Thus providing the youth of our community with a unique insight into the law, scientific or otherwise. Perhaps the Ilkley Gazette would join in by publishing the student's findings. One never knows the result could save them all a great deal of money. Your money.

FRAZER IRWIN

Deaconness Court,

Queen's Road,

Ilkley.

Bridge issue

SIR, - D Ascough's letter against the Burley Bridge project, calls for comment. One must speculate as to how many people were interviewed regarding the statement that 90 per cent of people are against the bridge.

Perhaps emotional prejudice was the motive. Perhaps this prejudice motivated the swipe at the Rambler's Association, which hardly related to the main thrust of this correspondence.

The suggestion that those who want to enjoy our local countryside should get into our cars and drive to Askwith takes no account of those without the necessary transport. Also, fortunate people like us may not want to undertake the necessary journey.

Encouragement to jump into the car is hardly environmentally friendly and negates the current emphasis on healthy living.

Finally, the uninhibited way in which developers are allowed to erect monstrous tall houses obviously erodes quality of life in our village.

JOHN BUSBRIDGE

4 Wrexham Road,

Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Sign hidden

SIR, - Whilst we were thinking about obscured traffic signs (letter from Frazer Irwin in last week's issue of the Gazette), which little genius fastened the brown sign showing the way to Ilkley Pool and Lido at exactly the right point on the lamppost at the top of Brook Street- in front of the new 'monkey rack'- to ensure that it comes slap bang between the lovely hanging baskets, and is thus totally invisible?

JEAN-ANN F BISHOP

15 Parish Ghyll Road,

Ilkley.