Letters to the Editor

SIR, - May I please reply through your paper to the front page article on the new library.

I cannot understand Councillor Graham Kirkland causing such a fuss over the building of a new library. Only a few months ago, he was questioning the ownership of the land and trying to stall the plans.

Now he is once again trying to cause trouble by asking about the loss of car parking spaces and also the fact that people will now have to pay in the larger Walkergate car park.

What is his concern. That there will be less free car parking for people to go into Leeds to shop and work! We, as traders in the town, expect the support of all councillors to try to encourage people to work and shop in our town.

Come on, Councillor Kirkland, it is hard enough to make a living without giving free park and ride places so people can get to Leeds etc.

May I also remind people that, as far as I can remember, the car park charges were brought in with the support of the Chamber of Trade with a sole purpose of preventing all day parking and freeing up spaces for shopping in Otley. I for one, look forward to the new library and let us not forget when Sainsbury's is built there will be another 200 plus parking spaces for Otley shoppers.

Michael Charnley

(Browse Time),

Claremont,

Prince Henry Road,

Otley.

Safety points

SIR, I write in reply to Councillor Graham Kirkland's letter last week about what he sees as inadequacies in the scheme I have been involved in to improve safety on West Chevin Road.

He makes a number of points and perhaps I could deal with them in turn. Firstly, he says that there have been efforts to get improvements on the road over many years and that previous promises from Highways have not been kept. I can only assume that if such promises were received by him or other councillors, then there was a failure to get those commitments in writing and/or a failure to follow up on them. I think that is an unacceptable level of service to the public.

Secondly, he suggests that I should have consulted with other councillors or brought the matter to the town council itself. In view of what I say above about past failures to bring promises to a conclusion, I think it's probably as well that I didn't.

I did what local residents asked me to do, namely to organise a meeting between them and highways staff, get a written response from highways to the safety issues they raised, help bring it forward to a draft scheme, copy the proposed plan to residents for comment, pass those comments back to highways for further consideration and keep residents regularly informed about progress.

Thirdly, the road sign 'Burras Lane' which he says was knocked down two years ago will be replaced as part of the scheme but, again, why didn't he do something about that himself rather than just complaining?

The same is true about the need to cut back overhanging foliage along parts of the route. It is to be dealt with and hopefully on a more regular basis.

Fourthly, I am well aware of the serious problems of the road itself, the landslip and the adverse camber for example, but the residents didn't ask me for a new road. Indeed, they accepted his councillor colleague Jim Spencer's view of three years ago that dealing with those major issues was not on offer and that he was not pursuing them.

Finally, if Coun Kirkland is serious about campaigning for a new West Chevin Road or some major structural improvements to the existing one - it should obviously begin with an exercise of consulting with local residents - then I would be more than willing to lend my support to it.

Coun Kevin Cooney

18 Sunnydale Ridge,

Otley.

New centre

SIR, - Last week in the letters column, Gerald McGowan seemed keen to score political points but missed the real point about a new Civic Centre for Otley.

The old Civic Centre was kept open by the town council when the owners, Leeds City Council, closed the facility some 20 years ago. In fact Coun Barry Peters and I as chairman of the council at the time, negotiated and signed the lease. Since then the town council has spent a large part of its income running and maintaining the interior of the building. We have now reached the point where major repairs and renovations have to be undertaken to bring the building up to standard.

It is prudent at this stage, therefore, to look at the full range of possibilities for the future provision of public rooms in Otley. Would it be better to repair the old building or would it be better to go for a new purpose-built building with up to date facilities?

In considering this matter it is important to understand that despite years of negotiations the previous two town councils have been unable to get Leeds City Council to agree to replace the roof or pay for the rewiring or even to give Otley Town Council a new lease.

The whole cost would fall on the Otley council and would be for a building we do not own and for which we do not have a lease. As to the cost I readily accept that the £4 million I mentioned was a wild guess which I aimed high to get the Labour councillors to accept that there was a figure which they were not prepared to ask us all to pay.

I agree with Coun McGowan that we don't know the price but he accepts in his letter a cost of £1 million without touching the roof or rewiring or replacing the windows to soundproof standards, or upgrading the fire exits, or repairing the damage done to the fabric by years of leaking water etc.

So it is accepted that full repairs will be very expensive indeed and probably mean closing the building for several months.

It needs also to be understood that in contrast to its attitude about the old building, Leeds City Council has been quite receptive so far to the idea of moving in partnership to a new building. That is why the council is presently consulting with all interested parties about what people want from a new building.

This would form the basis for plans which can be costed and a suitable site found. If at this point the project proves to be feasible we would like to see it happen as soon as possible. The intention is that the old building only closes when the new one opens.

Jim Spencer

Thorn Croft,

Burras Lane,

Otley.

Centre costs

SIR, - I read with interest the letter regarding Otley Civic Centre from Councillor Gerald McGowan and his costing which appears to be based on nothing.

Let us start first of all with the civic centre. This building was closed by the city council in the 1970s and was only reopened by the town council after pressing Leeds. Had it not reopened, by now it would have either been flats/housing or boarded up and derelict.

Since this time, very little money has been spent on the building and hence the state is in today. Leeds City Council has a huge backlog of maintenance on its buildings around the town so there is no chance of the city council restoring the building to its former glory and bringing it up to the standards required under the Disability Act.

A feasibility study was carried out in December, 2002, and this looked mainly at the main building. The survey left many unanswered questions and could only be used as a rough guide.

It must be remembered that the difference in level between the original separate buildings has resulted in two sets of steps in the corridors and neither ramps nor chairlifts would resolve the problem and the remodelling required would be so expensive that it would be prohibitively expensive.

Many problem areas were identified. These included the power supply, roof, windows, balcony, etc. A figure of £300,000 was put forward by the Labour group at this time. This was to be used mainly to refurbish the main hall and included removal of the wooden stage panels and full plastering to bring the hall back to what it would have looked like at the turn of the last century.

I, like many other councillors on the town council, would love to see the civic centre restored and brought up to date. It would be good to be able to offer disabled people access to all the rooms and areas in the civic centre, but without a bottomless pit of gold it is never likely to take place.

Costings for a new civic centre were based on current charges and on an existing hall and not 'just a guess'. If there was £5 million to £10 million available to build a new hall, then all the work could be done on the civic centre and we would not have to look for a new hall, which, in part, is due to 30 years of Leeds neglect.

Coun Nigel Francis

6 Pearsons Buildings,

Otley.

Lib Dem first

SIR, - I am writing to point out the incomplete report in last week's 'Wharfedale' when you talk about the contest to become our next MP in Leeds North-West.

You forgot to mention the person I think will be our next MP when Harold Best stands down, Councillor Greg Mulholland of the Liberal Democrats. You may remember you carried a piece on his selection last year!

The Conservative Party cannot possibly expect to be treated as serious contenders for Leeds North-West constituency when they have only selected their candidate now. The Liberal Democrats were the first of the three parties to select a prospective Parliamentary candidate - they actually selected Parliamentary spokesman Greg Mulholland back in 2002, showing how serious they are about winning the seat. Since then they have worked hard across the constituency, including here in Pool and in Otley, Bramhope, Yeadon and Rawdon, campaigning on local issues and Greg has recently sent a 'Your Views Count' survey to every home in the area to ask people about the issues that concern them.

Greg Mulholland is also a Leeds city councillor, but unlike New Labour's Judith Blake, he is one of the councillors here in Leeds North-West. Ms Blake had to find a seat in distant South Leeds when she was ousted by the Liberal Democrats in Weetwood in 2000!

If you want to know who can win here, look at the local election results last year. Across the whole of Leeds North-West the Lib Dems got more than 1,000 votes more than the nearest challengers and that looks set to be repeated this year.

And come June, Otley will once again be represented by three Liberal Democrat councillors on Leeds City Council. So a Liberal Democrat MP for the area is the next step!

So please, let's have some balanced and accurate reporting here. There are three parties in Leeds North-West and there's no doubt Greg Mulholland and the Liberal Democrats have set the pace up to now. Let battle commence!

Edward (Ted) Joce

The Reivers,

Arthington Lane,

Pool-in-Whafedale.

The last post

SIR, - We are told that an all-postal ballot will encourage more people to vote.

Any householder will be able to vote on behalf of themselves and their partner, whether they agree with their political views or not. They can vote on behalf of any of their children of voting age who are still living at home. They can vote on behalf of a lodger and anyone else living in their property.

They can vote on behalf of their senile granny and also their grandad even though he might have died three months earlier. They can vote on behalf of neighbours and other abstainers using any ballot paper that they can beg, borrow or steal.

They can vote early. They can vote often. An all-postal ballot may result in more votes being cast but it is wide open to abuse.

C M Harper

Banksfield Avenue,

Yeadon.

Saving grace

SIR, - As a pensioner who needs to watch the pennies more than most of the working community, I was very pleased with this week's much lower prices in Safeway (now under Morrisons control) in Otley.

I only wish Morrisons could be allowed to stay in control.

Mr J Higman

27 Whiteley Croft Road,

Otley.