Letters to the Editor

In Keighley there are very few places a disabled driver can legally park, considering how many there actually are. I am one of them and find that parking close to the Airedale Centre is beginning to be a frustrating experience.

I have begun parking my vehicle at the Town Hall side of the centre, if I can. I say if because the spaces provided are usually filled with one or more of the following, NCI van cleaning phone boxes, BT van servicing said boxes, taxi drivers picking non-disabled passengers up, emergency service vehicles not on an emergency and my biggest bugbear, ignorant non-disabled drivers 'just nipping to the cash point'. I think you get my point.

On the day I received my ticket, I parked in the bays by the phone boxes at the Town Hall. I had business in the housing department. I duly displayed my blue badges and toddled off to the Town Hall. When I got back to my car, there was the offending yellow and black plastic bag!

I had been 20 minutes in a 10 minute only parking space, due to the speed I walk and the length of the queue in the housing department. The traffic warden was still there chatting to someone parked in the loading only bay. He didn't give them a ticket by the way. I asked him about the non-disabled users of disabled spaces and got told 'I can't be everywhere!'

I know there are those disabled drivers who abuse the privilege of having blue badges, but there are also those drivers mentioned above.

I just wish that for one day they were disabled enough to have to find a parking space. They may think twice about making life even harder for those of us who genuinely need to use them. Oh! And whoever thought that disabled people could park up, go to either the shopping centre/bank/town hall etc and get back to their car within 10 minutes needs their bumps feeling!

Jayne Pickard

Hainworth Wood Road, Keighley

SIR - Would Jayne Brammah take the same view if one of her children was killed by a speeding motorist? Somehow I think not.

Laura Darnborough should remember the police act on information given, and any such information has then to be proved that it has not been given maliciously.

With regard to V Collier's letter, I'm sorry but the V Colliers of this country haven't a clue as to what really goes on with the police. May I suggest that if V Collier is eligible he joins the specials and for six months patrols the streets alongside the regulars, and if you still feel the same way I'll publicly apologise.

People should remember the officers from Keighley have to cover Keighley, Bingley, Shipley, Eldwick etc and there just are not enough of them to do it. Plus they have to be divided into three shifts. Every day these men and women put their lives on the line (as proved in a recent incident) and they get very little thanks.

For your information V Collier, yes I have had an incident in my life recently in which I was assaulted and the officer dealing with it, I felt, did not do it properly. I didn't complain to the newspapers, I went and spoke to Chief Insp Atkin, who treated me with the utmost courtesy and definitely restored my respect in the police. So come on V Collier, if you are young enough, join the specials, I can guarantee you 100 per cent you'll get the shock of your life.

As for not being fools, I think your letter proved the opposite.

DOROTHY M REID

Carlton Walk, Shipley

SIR - As a 'demoralised untrusting and fearful' member of the public, I must agree with Jayne Brammah.

I totally agree, if you commit the crime you must do the time, but come on, walking through Keighley town centre on any afternoon you will walk between gangs of white and Asian youths whose intention seems to be to intimidate people, so if all the other crimes have been nearly solved, can we have some reassuring presence from our boys in blue please.

P CLARKE

Moorhouse Lane, Oxenhope

SIR - Last week a reader raised the plight of the Keighley Cougar Cubs, a local organisation whose unpaid volunteers have been working very hard, often without credit or reward and often at personal expense, to provide a certain section of the town's youth with a structured and positive channel for their youthful enthusiasms.

With eleven, soon to be twelve separate teams and over 250 members, both boys and girls, the Cubs are arguably one of the biggest Amateur Rugby League Clubs in the country and without doubt the biggest ever Amateur Rugby League Club in this town.

As a paradox, as outlined by your reader, it does indeed boast one of the filthiest and ill equipped changing facilities this side of the Bridlington pig farms. On matchdays the changing rooms are over crowded and filthy, and separate changing facilities for officials are non-existent. The showers hardly ever work and an environmental health inspector has previously condemned the corridors and toilets.

Not surprisingly, Bradford Council never seem to have the resources to contribute to improvements and the Club has muddled through over the past decade, never ceasing to seek better facilities whilst continuing to grow in size and stature.

With the support of local businesses and generous individual benefactors too numerous to mention, and fundraising efforts of the players themselves, they have managed to raise enough money to fund their season but hardly anything else.

Due to the unselfish and hard work of a small number of volunteers, they are almost in a position to announce the demolition of the decrepit pavilion and the erection of a brand new purpose built Clubhouse nearby. I say almost because vital funds still need to be raised. With Club running costs now in five figures there is precious little left for development. In order to attract the necessary lottery funding the Club needs to show that they can raise a substantial amount themselves.

What the Club now desperately needs is the support of the town, in the form of pledges of support, donations in kind, offers of professional or manual services or even, dare I say it, cash!

If you feel that you can help in any way and would like to be a part of the solution to a local problem, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the relevant people.

R W Gillard,

Club Secretary.

Providence Crescent

Oakworth

SIR - I agree with Mr Reeves's objection to the introduction of a French street market on St George's Day.

I think, however, that the charge levied by Bradford was not so likely to be intended to stop it as to recoup some of the funds that they have wasted on similar events in Bradford.

I recently added my signature to a well supported petition raised by stall holders in Bradford markets, objecting to the repetition of a 'Continental' street market.

Far from attracting more business, local traders lose to the incoming opportunists, and since the offer of a sales pitch is open to anyone, some even come from such exotic places as Leeds!

It is ironic that the fees levied by the council on local traders might be seen to subsidise such 'staged' events.

One would not be so naive as to suppose that French traders would come dashing across here unless someone were going to pay for their accommodation at least. That there should be a nett cost incurred in staging one of these events is ludicrous when one considers that all local traders ( and, of course, householders) are expected to contribute to the council's income.

Furthermore, I would suggest that council employees who dream up such events have too little real work to do, and are merely attempting to perpetuate their jobs. Without their superfluous services, perhaps local rates could be a little lower.

J B Sunderland

Braithwaite Road, Keighley

SIR - At long last Bradford Council has announced that it is to spend a considerable amount of money -- £180,340 -- on Victoria Hall .

It was mentioned for disabled facilities. These were installed years ago -- three lots of toilets and lift, all in working order now.

The officers concerned have no idea as to what has priority -- namely replacing the rear stall seating, improving off stage accommodation, dressing room improvements and the stage lighting to name but a few.

Ah! But why is Bingley Arts Centre (yet again) to get more money than Keighley. The seating (which was of a comfortable style) was replaced years ago. Our Keighley Town Council should have this situation on top of its agenda.

Come on let's see proper action for Keighley

CYRIL ISHERWOOD

Former Public Halls Officer

Carr Lane, Keighley

SIR - Through your pages Keighley Shared Church Council would like to express publicly our thanks to the town wardens and outdoor amenities staff of Bradford Council for all they do in reducing vandalism and anti-social behaviour, and clearing and taking care of the churchyard, especially recently in the icy conditions.

Their work has made the area much safer and more pleasant for all of us, particularly the elderly.

Keep up the good work!

REV PETER MOTT

Keighley Shared Church

SIR - 669 Squad, Royal Marines, began training on March 13, 1957.

Last weekend we held our first reunion -- a superb evening, though not all our members could make it for a variety of reasons.

One who never had a chance to be there was Marine Dave Whittam, of Keighley, killed in action while serving in Cyprus with 40 Commando Royal Marines.

We would respectfully like to assure any relatives he may have in the area, his comrades remember him.

KEN BROTHERHOOD

Stockport, Cheshire

SIR - I am responding to your letter last week from David Sisley, in which he questions why the plans for the new medical centre to be built on Rawdon Road, Haworth, are 'not to be aired in public'.

As chairman of the planning committee of Haworth, Cross Roads & Stanbury Parish Council, I have done all in my power to ensure that the public have been kept aware of proceedings in this matter, including Mr Sisley.

I have been assured by Ward Councillor Glen Miller, who had approached the Area Planning Committee on my behalf, that planning are well within their rights to continue the matter without further public consultation.

As for Mr Sisley's comment that 'with one exception, the parish councillors are not elected', may I state, for the record, that ten members of the parish council (including Mr Sisley) were elected unopposed at the 2003 ward elections.

Since that time, Mr Sisley has resigned and we have further co-opted two new councillors. If Mr Sisley wishes to criticise the work of the parish council, I would prefer he did it with provable facts and not his personal version of events which have little to do with truth or fairness

Ian Shackleton

Chair of Planning

Committee,

Haworth, Cross Roads &

Stanbury Parish Council

SIR - I have fought elections and by-elections from one end of this country to the other and they all have one thing in common, there is always a David Samuels to contend with.

Their theme is always the same, 'how wonderful it was (and could be again) before Bradford (or whoever), London or Brussels interfered'. In the academic world this is known as the Myth of the Golden Age, and like most myths there is very little truth in it. The Tory-inspired Local Government Act of 1972 was perhaps a mistake, but it happened.

Although Keighley Town Council and the other Parish Councils have a vital role to play, Keighley Town Council is not Keighley Borough Council and never will be, no matter how many times Mr Samuels infers that it can be.

I agree with one thing he mentions, the minority that bother to vote, in 2003 the turnout at some polling stations in the Worth Valley was as low as 20 per cent. I don't really mind who people vote for, be it the Flat Earth Society or something called an independent, so long as they vote.

But they should vote for organisations that stand for something, with a programme for the future not for those who hark back to the good old days, or want Keighley to become a society whose concerns are frankly selfish. What's in it for me is hardly a rallying cry for a modern society or local democracy.

In the final analysis I would much rather have a load of manure than a large helping of Pie in the Sky.

TREVOR LINDLEY

Worth Valley Labour Team

Back Lane,

Stanbury

SIR - There are two million electors at present involved and concerned with the Equitable Life pension scheme and the Penrose Report.

These electors invested in good faith with a reasonable expectation that their investment would hold a safeguard to their retirement.

They also felt they had good protection from the regulatory bodies. They have been let down by both and are being abandoned to their fate by this government.

To quote Labour MP George Mudie: "Gordon Brown says 'I do not want you to be dependent on the state pension, so I want you to put money aside. You can do it over 30 years or 40 years'."

I'm painting a picture of the person who has done what the government wants them to do - and in the light of the Penrose Report ministers are saying, "We are in the clear, you're on your own, brothers and sisters". It strikes me as callous.

I challenge the local Labour MPs Ann Cryer and Chris Leslie to follow suit with similar condemnation.

ANNE HAWKESWORTH

Manley Road,

Ben Rhydding

SIR - Could anyone please let me know if a small company in Sutton made washing machines of any type, maybe some time in the late 30s or early 40s?

J C WILSON

35 Heyhead Street,

Brierfield, Nelson,

Lancs, BB9 5BN.