Over-development ruining views

The recent development at Wellfield Farm has finally driven me to put pen to paper in the hope that it may relieve some of the frustration I feel.

As I drive out of Burley towards Ilkley, what used to be a wonderful view up the Wharfe Valley has now been virtually obliterated by the gable end of a three-storey block of town houses.

If the houses had been two-storey rather than three and in line with the detached show house, then the view would have remained unspoilt - but, of course, this would have meant less money and fewer properties.

I accept that any spare land that becomes available will be used to 'pack in' as many detached-semis as is physically possible (if people are prepared to pay such exorbitant prices it is their choice), but when the views of the countryside I have enjoyed all my live are continually being taken away I feel angry, sad and frustrated that there seems to be nothing I or anyone else can do to prevent it. Where will it all end?

Barbara Cowling

Fenton Street,

Burley-in-Wharfedale

.

Parking protest

SIR, - I should like to bring to your attention the proposed parking restrictions on Middleton Avenue.

I understand the consultation date has passed but may be extended due to lack of publicity. Details should be available at the town hall or parish council. Broadly, the proposals are:

1. To restrict parking on the corners of Denton Road and Middleton Avenue. Sadly necessary as people do not respect the Highway Code requirements.

2. (i) Propose 30 metres of coach parking to the west of Middleton Avenue by the football pitch, flanked by ten metres of no parking on each side.

(ii) 50 metres of no parking opposite on the east side of the road.

My own objection to the proposal under (2) is that we lose 100 metres of car parking that serves both locals and visitors well.

Many of the displaced cars will intrude further and further into residential areas. It is not necessary/appropriate to use parking for coaches in this area.

At least two, if not three, times in the last few years it has been proposed that coaches should drop passengers in town and repair to the swimming pool/leisure area for parking.

When the budgets would not encompass this (and one should study what some of our council tax has been spent on), the local authority used the machinery of planning to stop action.

Interestingly, most tourist towns would use this kind of area and could at the same time upgrade the toilets for the leisure areas whilst ours are currently at an all-time low.

The proposed option is simply an economy measure to avoid the provision of suitable foundations for coach standing and is using existing roads irrespective of the ensuing factors.

There is no commonsense in it as the elderly people who use a high proportion of the coaches to Ilkley will still need to be dropped nearer the town and any coaches used by young visitors would be well served by parking in the leisure area.

B J CUSSONS

4 Curly Hill,

Ilkley.

Euro unknowns

SIR, - F H Bruin writes (August 3) about the 'extraordinary prices' in the UK - of petrol, rail, ferry aeroplane and cups of coffee and warns: 'Until the pound becomes the euro, the UK will sink deeper in the monetary quagmire' thus implying that prices would drop, as all countries will pay the same for goods and services. But would they?

It raises the question to which I have long wished to hear an answer. Would swapping our pound for the euro really mean that every euro country pays the same price for wine, food, petrol, travel and houses.

I very much doubt it. I reckon we would still pay two euros, for every one of theirs for a bottle of wine and three euros, for every one of theirs, for a new car.

Would petrol cost the same for everyone? Would the Chancellor be able to impose his own taxes or will he have to conform to a common rate?

And what about property? Just think of the difference between the prices of a three-bedroomed house in London, Newcastle and rural France.

To understand the effect of changing to the euro, we need to know what would happen to prices and taxes. The Government's reluctance to engage in a dialogue about the Euro is not helpful.

Wyn Chalker

13 Margerison Crescent,

Ben Rhydding,

Ilkley.

Bus conflict

SIR, - With regard to my ongoing conflict with Firstbus, I wonder how many of the travelling (by bus) public are aware that, in addition to First Bradford, First Leeds have also 'rationalised' their timetables to the 'outback' areas of Wharfedale (where it is believed that the inhabitants still paint themselves in woad and civilisation has yet to be established).

By some quirk of fate, the operative date for change was July 23 - the same day as the launch of First Bradford's mighty mayhem. Incidentally, I am given to understand that their services are also under review. We hillbillies out here in the sticks could end up with the pony express once a fortnight!

I have to say that First Leeds has outdone First Bradford, however, in that apart from its drivers, it has allowed no-one else in on the secret. Having last week waited in vain for several First Leeds buses, I began to suss out the fact that radical changes had been made, unbeknown and unadvertised to the travelling public. (You've got to hand it to me, there are no flies on me!)

In a reply to my phone call last Friday to Metro requesting a copy of the new timetable (having spent all week trying vainly to obtain one), I was assured of a personal delivery by post but should not expect to receive it for five days. How long does it take to address an envelope, one wonders?

Only some eight days later than 'D' (for Deprivation) Day, did copies of the new timetables appear on the buses. They are, however, so well secured to the handrails that only the strongest of tugs can persuade them to part from the attaching string. Sadly, those displayed at the bus stops are still woefully out of date. Don't they want passengers?

Score one to First Bradford here, though! Their revised timetables are all now in place. First Bradford is leading by a short head. Perhaps First Leeds is to offer a prize to those who can manage to reach their destinations in spite, rather than because, of them?

I wait with breathless anticipation, secure in the certain belief that the lunatics are running the asylum!

Miss E M Holbrook

The Gables,

48 Bradford Road,

Menston.

Listen to people

SIR, - I read with interest your reports and letters on the so-called 'by-pass meeting' attended by myself and a large audience interested in Ilkley's traffic and transport problems.

I was disappointed to read that the parish council felt that the meeting had been "hijacked". I suggest that they should listen to the people's concerns and make long-term plans with the appropriate bodies (Bradford and the RDA) to at least try to improve the transport issue and the quality of life in the town.

Ilkley continues to expand and attract visitors and we may have 13,000 vehicles a day passing straight through. We have a road system laid down in Victorian times that will at some stage need re-planning.

One cannot continue to create more apartments and housing and encourage tourism without updating the infrastructure. We want better public transport, more car parking, traffic separation schemes, better road crossings, and inevitably a relief or bypass road to get the traffic out of the town.

At the meeting, Mr Schofield told us that there were no plans for a bypass or, at present, for any other even minor improvements, but just a plan to 'de-trunk' the A65.

He also said that there was no money either! So the matter is in our hands locally - expanded Ilkley collects a huge rate for Bradford and the Yorkshire RDA - so let's see some investment in the town.

The parish council is our democratic body for us. It heard the strength of feeling and passion at the meeting and it saw people power.

It is now up to them to take up the challenge. Forget about hijacking and think about the positive interest that people have. We now need action and feedback.

DAVID E POLLARD

Weavers,

8 High Mill,

Addingham.

Kind deed

Sir, - I would like to thank the motorist who was taking his elderly mother, aged 92, for a ride in the Ilkley area. He kindly stopped at the foot of Cowpasture Road when I was unwell and gave me a lift home to Menston. I forgot to ask his name and would like to thank him.

C D Moore.

(01943) 875007.

(name and address supplied)

Roman road

Sir, - Much has been written about the Queen's highway around Ilkley, proposed or otherwise, and of late, Imperial Rome.

While we know where is the former, the latter has been open to conjecture. Recently with aid of map references from 1848 to present day, I joined the Roman Road Co-ordinator for Yorkshire in plotting the route of a Roman Road atop Ben Rhydding Drive.

It soon became clear the section under investigation followed a differing route to that first reported. Also the amount of development along it's route during the past two centuries was somehow overlooked by those who first brought the situation to everyone's notice.

The railway, numerous roads, Scalebor Park Hospital, various sewers, water mains and drains, farm buildings, North Sea Gas, school playing fields and a private house have been built on, over and beneath the road before it passes on or beside a nearby golf course. Little if anything being brought to the notice of the Press when these took place.

A modicum of research could have saved much wasted time, money and ill feeling to say nothing of red faces. In closing I am reminded of a quote from Virgil, 'Latet anguis in herba' (there is a snake hidden in the grass).

Frazer Irwin

Queen's Road, Ilkley, LS29 9QJ