Letters to the editor

Non-commercial organisations hiring the Town Hall are either local - based and working solely in the Craven area - or national - based and working largely outside Craven.

The number of visitors to Skipton makes the Town Hall the most attractive of the few venues in Craven which local organisations can use to raise funds or promote their activities.

These Craven-based organisations have no large financial resources but support a wide variety of local causes. They rely on their members and supporters giving their time up voluntarily to raise money. Most importantly, all the money they raise is ploughed back to benefit the community in Craven.

Unlike local organisations, national organisations are not dependent on the Town Hall but have a wide choice of venues across the country. They have far greater financial resources, full time staff and operate charity shops in most towns.

They are all worthy organisations, but however worthy their aims, little of the money they raise at Skipton Town Hall goes back into the Craven area.

National organisations have now secured many of the dates when the Town Hall is available for hire next year. This effectively excludes local Craven-based groups from Skipton Town Hall.

As a result, the Skipton and Craven Lions Club anticipates a fall of 75 per cent in the money it will be able to raise for local causes in 1999 and the Millennium year.

If the council only wants to maximise its income from hiring the Town Hall, it is immaterial whether local or national organisations hire it, as the fees are the same for both.

On the other hand, the people of Craven may feel that most of the money raised locally ought to be spent locally.

Should the council have the wider interest of the community at heart, it needs to ensure local organisations at least have equality of access to the Town Hall and it should soften the impact on local organisations of the savage increases in hire charges.

Wally Clark,

President,

Skipton and Craven Lions,

Rockwood Drive, Skipton.

New rules to blame

SIR - With regard to your article 'Anger over rubbish refusal' (Craven Herald April 20), as the driver of the vehicle involved, I would like to make a few comments.

Firstly, your photographer did not show the whole picture. It did not show other larger items, such as a dismantled, fitted wardrobe and other bulky items.

The basket which Mr Heseltine is holding up would have certainly been taken had we seen it.

The reason the bulky items were not taken was because we are under strict instructions that under no circumstances have we to remove these items until we have been authorised to do so by the council.

I can sympathise with Mrs Hopkinson and Mr Johnson. However it was not the fault of the binmen but the council's new policy on the removal of bulky items.

In the end a third vehicle was used and removed the rubbish within 10 minutes of being authorised.

I am convinced that the majority of residents on Burnside will agree that over the past years we have given them a good service and would willingly continue to do so if we were allowed to.

D Gill,

Refuse driver,

Craven District Council.

Editor's note: We recognise that our refuse teams do a magnificent job in Craven. The point of the story was that it illustrated the fear that the new regulations and charges will lead to more people simply dumping their rubbish on the street and at road sides.

Craven is so lucky

SIR - There can be few places in the United Kingdom so fortunate in the provision of health care facilities as Craven.

Earlier this month I was in the company of friends when I was taken ill with a heart difficulty. After one phone call they were instructed to take me to Skipton General where, after an immediate examination, I found myself in a paramedic ambulance on the way to Airedale.

En route not only were the necessary tests undertaken but my rather panicky fears were also expertly assuaged.

On arrival at Airedale I was expected, the necessary report had been made by the paramedics and a bed was prepared. The care and attention I received from the experienced and understanding team on ward one for the few short days I was under treatment (including the admonishment as to past lifestyle) will be long remembered.

The ward was very busy with cases far worse than my own and I was able to observe how the front line team copes with situations most of us would find breathtaking.

I understand that moves have been made to merge the Airedale with the Bradford management. Why?

The Airedale team is efficient, works within budget and fully understands the operational requirements to serve the diverse patient community. Goodness knows what would happen to that expertise should it be submerged under a culture more suited to city requirements.

Why do the so-called powers that be want to reduce standards when they should encourage retention and improvement of good practice.

With the service we currently have, I was very fortunate. May the system remain to help others in future.

DS Denton,

The Commercial Inn,

Skipton.

Silent surprise

SIR - I'm surprised that the letter of Dot Phillips, Langcliffe, published earlier this year in the Craven Herald, elicited a nil response from those who rejected a planning application made by a badly disabled young man.

From her letter, I understand that the application was for planning permission to convert a barn in the village of Langcliffe and was refused on the grounds that "barn stands in open countryside and outside existing settlement boundaries".

It would be interesting to learn on what grounds Kettlewell obtained (or should I say were given?) permission to build low cost housing on land outside the village's existing boundary and on a site not normally acceptable.

Anyway, the Langcliffe barn does not, repeat not, "stand in open countryside"; in fact it cannot be seen from the road because it's hidden by the railway line. Also, it's situated near a terrace of houses. The paper mill is about 100 yards from the barn in question; further along the road are two recently converted barns.

The parish councillors didn't back the application; national parks took a year to refuse the application, and a badly disabled young man had to cope with the delay and frustration.

As stated above, I've seen no published response to Dot Phillips' letter, ie one giving acceptable and understandable reasons for this refusal. Is that because the parish council and national park feel that we peasants would not understand, or was it beneath their dignity to respond? It would be nice to know.

JH White,

St John's Row, Langcliffe.

Same old story

SIR - So John Clark avails himself of your correspondence columns to urge us to join his nascent Referendum Movement.

Prospective recruits from the - majority - working class might usefully remind themselves that, whether or not we embrace 'monetary and financial union within Europe', what we'll fetch up with is the same old corrupt, exploitative system of commodity production for sale with a view to profit, namely the raw, unbridled, capitalism we so lamely tolerate today.

Plus ca change, as our French cousins would say.

Richard Cooper,

Caxton Garth, Threshfield.

Vegetarian cyclists

SIR - I refer to the letter from Mr T Parsons (Craven Herald, April 9) relating to cycling, particularly the involvement of the Vegetarian Cycling and Athletic Club, London based and founded in 1888.

Since that time branches have been formed in Yorkshire, the Midlands and Scotland. The Yorkshire branch was founded in 1933; a notable London branch member was George Bernard Shaw. The club motto was 'feed well, speed well'.

I joined the Yorkshire branch in 1935 and took part in the club runs and time trials referred to by Mr Parsons. The Yorkshire branch promoted time trials at 25, 50 and 100 miles and 12 and 24 hour events. These were well supported by competitors from many parts of the country.

With a healthy membership, the Yorkshire branch flourished. Club members participated in almost every time trial promotion in the Yorkshire region.

Your correspondent refers to Hitler upsetting everything in 1939. How true! I rode in a 12 hour time trial in September 1939. Passing through Easingwold a fellow competitor called to me and informed me that war had been declared. We both retired, sat on a grass bank in the warm sunshine and talked of the future.

It was pleasing to have such cycling memories revived by your correspondent.

Tom Weatherhead,

Middleway, Silsden.

Skipton's ghost office

SIR - I recently had occasion to visit the DSS office in Cavendish House, Skipton, with a medical certificate for my husband who receives invalidity benefit and has to supply the medical certificate every 12 months.

The office was like a morgue. Not a soul in sight, except for the very pleasant staff behind the counter.

To my horror, I learned that the office these days has only about six staff working there. In the past when I have visited this office, the clients have been spilling out of the doors and the numbered waiting system was being fully used!

I had no need to ask myself the reason for the ghost office state of affairs as my husband had recently been sent a letter reminding him that a new medical certificate was needed in order for him to continue to receive benefit.

This letter had been sent from the office in Keighley with instructions to take the new certificate to the Keighley office, either in person or an envelope could be obtained from the post office for this purpose. No mention of the local office in Skipton where it could also be taken.

When I mentioned this to the staff at Skipton, where I went to enquire whether I could in fact leave it with them, they said they knew nothing of the instruction in the letter from Keighley, never having seen a copy, and had wondered why they were not getting many people calling in the office at Skipton.

I can foresee this office in Skipton being closed, with the excuse that it was not being used sufficiently.

This was the excuse given for the closure of a lot of local railway lines after the busiest trains had been removed from the timetable! I suppose a similar excuse was given for the closure of the gas and electricity showrooms and offices in Skipton.

Why should the people of Skipton be left out in the cold in this way. There are, after all, some people like myself who would rather have personal contact with other people instead of having to resort to letter or telephone. We do have a DSS office in Skipton and it is possible to take medical certificates there rather than have to trek to Keighley or, indeed, have to send them through the post.

Name and address supplied,

Skipton.

Chilly performance

SIR - On Friday night I was privileged to attend an amazing performance of 'Four Northern Poets and Rutter' at Skipton Auction Mart.

Arriving early to bag a good seat, I was confronted by an ice cold chamber with a wooden roof and a concrete floor; 'Life in the Freezer by Ben Osbourne' leaflets were appropriately strewn around the place. Was I about to be slaughtered?

Other members of the audience eventually arrived, fully clad in duvets and duffles and armed with hot flasks and warm cushions (one cold gentleman kept his hood up throughout the evening). And when a cool Rutter in an open neck shirt and smart suit walked into the limelight and on to a rickety podium, I nearly bolted from the arena. I was shivering.

However, I was soon warmed up by an act of sheer bravado sustained by a varied and stimulating choice of poetic texts written by Yorkshire's own and of course by the earthy Rutter, whose philosophy as a performing artist (strongly addicted to rhyme and rhythm!) appeared to be deeply rooted not only in his native Yorkshire but also in the Delphic springs of ancient Greek culture.

As a new visitor to the Mart, I emerged afterwards purged and purified!

Skipton, a thousand thanks.

David Vacher,

Town Head, Grassington.

Railway rubbish

SIR - I applaud Bunty Leder's recent campaign to tidy up the roadside verges which has borne fruit.

Could someone in regional railways possibly turn their attention to the disgraceful state of some of the embankments, especially one place near Keighley.

They are strewn with litter and assorted rubbish.

The stations are gradually being improved and kept tidy so how about the rest of it, possibly creating temporary employment and include planting of bulbs and shrubs.

Wendy Milner,

Church Street, Gargrave.

Tory budget

SIR - I read with amazement the gobbledygook written by Coun John Pilkington's letter 'Flawed Alternative' (Craven Herald Letters, April 9). It would have been more aptly titled 'Floored by Alternative'.

I will take him up on his points regarding the Skipton Town Hall lettings and reduction in the cost of consultants.

He said that our Conservative group's alternative budget for Craven in 1998-99 assumed that the increase in charges for the use of Skipton Town Hall will be implemented in full from April 1.

I can tell Coun Pilkington categorically that we made no such assumptions. As he knows full well, the Conservative group leader, Peter Walbank, spoke out in the policy and resources committee meeting very strongly indeed against these thoughtless, exorbitant, counter productive increases proposed by the Liberal Democrats.

Coun Walbank informed members of this committee of the many complaints that he had received from people; one example he gave was of a charity club organiser who had told him that their annual letting bill would increase from £2,000 to £5,000 with these new charges and they just could not afford such increases and would have to consider an alternative venue.

The Conservative group voted against these extremely high proposed charges but the Liberal Democrats voted for the increases like a lot of lemmings following one another over a clifftop.

There was always going to be a shortfall in the council budget from these crazy, increased charges. Income has been falling from town hall lettings over the past several years, even at current letting charges, so how on earth are you going to make more money when you are going to be losing many of your regular customers? It just does not make economic sense.

We would make up the shortfall by making further savings on the astronomical fees charged by the inordinate number of outside consultants employed by Craven District Council, which totalled £210,338 last year. We would greatly reduce the use of outside consultants by having the work done in house.

A further point raised by Coun Pilkington was that the reason for the council tax being high last year was because the Conservative government reduced the grant to the council. There was a reduction, which equalled a council tax rise of 13.9 per cent. What did the council do about their reduced income? Nothing, they just passed the whole of it straight on to the council tax payers. Did they try to make any savings? No. We Conservatives produced an alternative budget of 2.5 per cent increase.

We have proposed not filling the post of director of public services because the post has been vacant for the best part of a year.

We do not want to fill this post because we want to save the council tax payers of Craven the £60,000 salary and expenses of a post that has proved unnecessary during the past year.

We will never be satisfied with the administration of Craven District Council because we, the Conservative group, will be working continuously to improve it.

Coun Ken Luty,

Upper Wharfedale Ward,

Craven District Council.

Hoodwinked

SIR - As the local election comes nearer, is it not time for the people in this region to ask themselves how much longer are they prepared to be hoodwinked by local politicians?

We now have the Tories in the Craven ward of Bradford Met who want to know the answer to 'The Big Question: do people really want a referendum to break free from Bradford?' That is on their election special.

It might be news to the local Tory party but 12,000 voters in the Aire-Worth region have already written to the Tory and Labour governments and have achieved nothing from either. The truth is that up to election time, local Tories have shown little interest in a break from Bradford.

As for the Labour party, well, what excuses will they put forward to get back into City Hall, especially in this area?

Let us remember how Labour turned its back on the people - 10,000 objections to the UDP were termed irrelevant in the Aire-Worth area and the objections from Silsden were referred to as 'selfish'.

In conclusion, look what is going on with children's education. Is it not time to call time on the political damage being done by Bradford to this area?

RP Beale,

Currer Walk, Steeton.

Scad plea for support

SIR - Three years ago, after some considerable heart searching, the Scad charity shop moved to a new site opposite St Andrew's Church in Newmarket Street, Skipton.

We opened there for business during March 1995 and the move has proved to be a great success both for Scad and for our customers.

May I please take advantage of the anniversary of this event to remind your readers of those features of our shop in which we take particular pride, in which we believe we are in partnership with the local community and which perhaps set us a little apart from the other excellent charity shops with which Skipton abounds.

Firstly, this is a local charity in every sense. All the money taken by the shop is spent again either within Craven or to bring benefit to Craven.

For example, the new Lottery funded bus was bought in Skipton. The existing bus received a very necessary repaint at Cross Hills and our fuel and office supplies are bought locally.

Furthermore we lease our premises from Craven District Council and pay the full commercial rate for them. So, quite apart from our work with people with disabilities we contribute to the economic liveliness of the district.

Secondly, our shop is staffed entirely by volunteers. This means that every penny spent in the shop goes directly to fund our work. And that does mean every penny, because unlike many other charities, Scad sells only goods which have been freely and generously donated.

Finally, but of primary importance, Scad uses the income from the shop to serve people with disabilities in the Craven district.

There are many excellent national bodies serving the causes of disability; Scad serves the needs of Craven people, addressing the particular problems and seeking out the new opportunities for people who live and work in the Craven district.

I would like to thank all those who support us, either by actively volunteering and/or contributing to our fund raising ventures.

In particular, special thanks go to all those who so generously donate items to our shop. Three years on, the Newmarket Street premises can celebrate their new position with a cornucopia of goods for sale.

Pauline Jackson,

Manager,

Scad charity shop,

Newmarket Street, Skipton.

Gum bound

SIR - Unwelcome sights these days abound, horrid grey spoldges stuck on the ground.

Are they, maybe, beings from outer space, leaving their calling cards all over the place?

Or is it just a modern phase, 'spitting gum out all over the place ?

Around doorways, down alleys in High Street too, wherever you look, they're spoiling the view.

But with modern technology it must surely follow that they'll invent a chewing gum one can swallow.

Mrs D Tewdall,

Roughaw Close, Skipton.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.