Row will rumble on over

Bolling Road speed strips

SIR, - A number of Ben Rhydding residents have noticed that Bradford Council (we assume) seem to have taken the opportunity of the roadworks and temporary traffic lights on Bolling Road to lay speed checking strips near to these traffic lights.

After the criticism of the previous set of figures that the Transport Department brought out - that these did not cover the long straight stretch of road which the boy racers consider their personal speed track - we thought 'good on the council.

We believed they will now be able to gauge the effect of traffic calming at just the place where it is most needed as they would have figures for before and after traffic lights were in place'.

But it seems we may have misjudged the good intentions because the speed strips were removed last week before the traffic lights were dismantled.

And given that they were placed there after the traffic lights were in place we can perhaps now put a less charitable interpretation on the action.

Perhaps our local councillors could suggest to their officers that they have been rumbled.

Any attempt to produce a set of figures for this period which purports to show that the average speed around the playing field stretch of Bolling Road is only 15mph instead of the 50 or 60 which many residents regularly witness will be seen as being as bogus as the many excuses for inaction which are regularly trotted out.

SANDY MACPHERSON

33, Wheatley Lane,

Ben Rhydding,

Ilkley.

Not the spirit

SIR, - I am so greatly saddened by the mean spirited actions of the licensees of the Crown Public House, Addingham, who have just withdrawn very valuable car parking facilities afforded to the adjoining children's nursery.

These people are quite happy to increase the potential risks posed by busy roads to very young lives not to mention making life harder for working parents, struggling to drop off children, backpacks, coats, equipment and often in appalling weather.

Addingham is still a relatively small village and has still managed to maintain much of the wonderful, but rarely found these days, community spirit, something which has obviously by-passed the Crown.

I appreciate that the business and the needs of the customers come first.

I also acknowledge that a small number of parents abused the parking privilege by ignoring a 4pm curfew, but it has been pretty obvious they have been waiting for any opportunity to stop this brief use of the car park.

These people are missing an opportunity. The nursery is used primarily by local people, and there are financial benefits to building relationships with the locals, not destroying them.

If they really thought about it they could come up with some original ideas to attract families to the pub, and where better to advertise them than through the nursery.

The word 'publican' is derived from the word 'public'. In my dictionary this is defined as, 'open for general use', 'accessible for all', 'serving the community'.

I am afraid none of these phrases could be used to describe the current licensees' actions.

Finally I am sure the licensees will retort with many good business reasons to justify their actions, but we and they know that they have no moral justification whatsoever.

Mrs J King

Addingham

Not the spirit

Sir, - Why not slip into some tight lycra, hop on your bicycle and join UK learning disability charity Mencap on its first ever bike ride through Vietnam and Cambodia from February 10 to 20, 2006?

Starting in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and finishing in Angkor Wat in Cambodia, you'll experience breathtaking scenery.

To join this wonderful adventure and help people with a learning disability in the process, you will need to raise a minimum sponsorship. For further information, including tips on fundraising, please call (0845) 977 7779 or visit www.mencap.org.uk/events

Laurence Llewelyn Bowen

123 Golden Lane, London.