Letters to the Editor

SIR,- Twelve months ago the Airedale NHS Trust proposed the closure of the Coronation Hospital in order to balance the books.

This would have resulted in the withdrawal of services and any local people in need of help would have been compelled to travel to the General Hospital in Silsden.

Twelve months is a long time and has seen two very significant developments.

The first was the local reaction to the implications of the closure that was given public expression through the campaign led by parish councillors and with outstanding support from the local media.

Not withstanding Central Government dislike for referenda, the campaign was extremely successful and a perfect model for democracy at its finest.

The people expressed their wishes, civic leaders - including Members of Parliament responded - and the Gazette made sure that all had the opportunity to be kept informed.

The result, 11,000 signatures on a petition that was handed over to the Minister of State at the Department of Health in November 2002.

The second development was the publication by the Department of Health in February 2003 of a document that recommended redesign of local services rather than relocating them.

This new direction to keep the NHS local may have been in preparation for months previously and perhaps the submission of the Ilkley petition was coincidence.

Nevertheless, the Ilkley campaign must at least have had a very significant influence on how the Government came to signal a change of course.

And this is credit of the Government for responding in this way.

The main outcome for the Ilkley campaign is that the Airedale NHS Trust had the opportunity to work with local interests to identify other options.

These are being brought forward as a consultation document for the public and other interests. Those who signed the petition should now consider which option to go for.

Many will want to maintain the Coronation Hospital as it is. For the Airedale NHS Trust this would possibly be the most expensive and the least attractive.

It is also the option that carries the greatest future risk to the provision of local services.

The same pressures that led to the consideration of closure last year will not go away. Sooner or later the question of the high cost of this hospital and the need to save money will arise again and the next time around we may not have the chance to maintain delivery of local services.

A second option would be to close the Coronation Hospital and to retain some local services in alternative accommodation.

This would be piecemeal and patients would have to travel around Ilkley for some treatments and to Airedale General Hospital for those services such as Outpatients clinics/minor injuries and X-ray departments. And of course the existing inadequate space at the General Hospital for dealing with current patients would come even more under pressure.

The third option would be to develop the site of the Coronation Hospital in a way that retains and enhances services for our population.

However, there are limitations on what can be achieved with the existing building and to retain existing services and add new ones would mean the closure of our favourite hospital.

This will be the dilemma that confronts supporters of the petition. As one of those, my position is that it would have been nice to keep the hospital going. But what is more important for me is the retention of services for our residents in a place which is far more accessible than Silsden.

I will let the Parish Council know my views. It is crucial though that the Parish Council, whose work on selecting the best option for Ilkley continues, should receive the widest possible information to guide them in their response to the consultation document.

I hope that as many as possible of those who signed the petition will now take the trouble to advise the Parish Council where their preferences lie.

Philip Chinque

Parish Ghyll Drive

Ilkley

Cancer research

Sir, - Two months ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer and as I am only 47 and was to find out that only two per cent of breast cancer is hereditary, I began to research the disease.

As a nurse, you might think I would have considerable knowledge but as I was to find out, very few doctors and nurses know that up to 80 per cent of cancers are preventable (this figure includes smoking) and glaze over when confronted with the information as though they are talking to a person with learning difficulties. Some of the causes for the increase I have found include:

1 All meat, but especially red and dairy produce due to saturated fat which impairs the immune system making it harder for the white cells to kill cancer cells which may be in your body from time to time.

2. Farmers adding carcinogenic chemicals, antibiotics and hormones to animals for meat production and dairy cows to promote growth and milk yield. These chemicals and drug residues then become highly concentrated in the flesh and milk of animals. It's the same story with fish ingesting chemicals from the sea and especially if the fish eat other polluted fish, the chemicals can be concentrated by up to thousands of times.

3 Our fruit and vegetables have been messed about so much with chemicals since the Second World War, that the anti-cancer properties that are so vital have been drastically reduced.

4 Processed foods have taken over from whole foods to the extent that some children only eat fresh vegetables on Christmas Day. These foods contain yet more chemicals and virtually no vitamins or minerals at all which are essential to fight cancer.

5 The millions of pounds which have been poured into cancer research from charities have proved to be dismally ineffective. Although there have been some successes, including childhood leukaemias and testicular cancer.

However, the majority of cancer victims will only have their lives prolonged by a few years and many will have suffered the standard debilitating treatments, which have changed very little in the last 30 years, despite what you may have been led to believe.

6 Many of the research projects are funded by the pharmaceutical companies.

7 I am afraid doctors are very much extensions of the pharmaceutical companies, and their medical training leaves them with virtually no nutritional and preventative knowledge.

All of this sounds gloomy I know, but the knowledge has empowered me to dramatically change my diet and lifestyle because I intend to be around when I have grandchildren.

I also want to give a message of hope, as I know from my experience that this is crucial and many people have survived against the odds.

If the cancer is caught early enough, it is possible with the aid of conventional medical treatment and changing to an organic vegan diet, including fruit and vegetable juices and using mindpower to prolong your life by much more than the depressing graphs you will be shown by your oncologist.

Sue Maybury

The Mistal,

Eastfield Lane,

Burley in Wharfedale.

Public flogging

SIR,- Going in front of a committee has always been some sort of ordeal for most ordinary people. Committees or 'The committee' are good at sitting around a table and enjoying the ego trip with or without the Tv cameras in attendance.

Imagine how the foreign affairs select committee felt when they realised they were part of the ongoing soap opera into the Iraq war and its consequences.

There's always a bully on 'The Committee' and this one was no different. David Kelly was clearly intimidated just as they wanted it, and they succeeded in leaving him with a feeling of humiliation.

The problem with this is, it wasn't a smoke filled social club where Mr Kelly could walk out into the night and leave the Bully to fiddling the amusement machines and fixing the annual raffle, inbetween sharing his know all and know nothing opinionated views with anyone and no-one in particular.

No, this was a public embarrassment from the high and mighty and I quote 'high court of parliament' with a public flogging in the press the morning after.

Regardless of the impact this judge and jury made on his state of mind the main thing is they will be shocked and saddened at the tragic outcome (pull the other one). It won't be long before someone on this committee applies to be on the sub committee and then they can get in there caravan and clog up the right hand lane of the M1.

Let's hope the wheels don't fall off but if they do the BBC should be there to film it.

RIP Mr Kelly.

Dan Cooney

Casa Loco

San Pedro Del Pinatar

Spain

Let's be tolerant

SIR,- whatever our views about the travellers in Ilkley, I think we could show a little more tolerance in the way we express them. What kind of example are we setting our children?

No, I don't think East Holme Field was a good place for them to stay either, but it seems excessive to suggest that having them near the Lido presents a special problem - a view reported on your front page on Jul 17..

Our family uses the Lido a great deal and we didn't see it that way: the Lido will remain an attractive and popular place on a sunny day.

As for the judging of Britain in Bloom, if the travellers were still around on judging day, the people who see this as a problem could always have leant them some pot plants.

Paul Atkinson

Grange Avenue

Ilkley

Who has failed?

SIR,- I was disappointed to read Mr Dundas's letter, responding to my correspondence about education and housing in the Bradford District.

He claims I said the Council had 'admitted its failings'. I did not say that, as readers of my letter can see for themselves.

What I did say was that the Conservative led council has recognised the weaknesses developed under the former Labour administration.

Bradford is not a failing council - the recent audit report called it a good council, and I would accept that impartial view before the word of Mr Dundas.

He says he was a rival candidate in the May elections. He does not admit that he was the Labour candidate. Perhaps this is just as well.

He expresses confidence that as a result of Conservative and Liberal policies, schools in Bradford can and will catch up. It is thanks to his party that they were so far behind to start with.

It is he who is bold to talk of failing. He led Labour into last place in Rombalds ward for the first time in years.

He asks whether councillors with admitted weaknesses can be effective custodians of our services. It is often said that only once you have recognised the issues you are faced with can you go on to address them. I would much rather entrust public services to a Council that is able to address such issues, than to Mr Dundas, who seemingly thinks it is wrong even to admit them.

Councillor Matt Palmer

94 Station Road

Burley-in-Wharfedale