Letters to the Editor

intrusion into the green belt

SIR, - Further to your lead story last week, and whilst readily accepting that the office development under way has long been envisaged, I would like to record that not all business and political leaders welcome the destruction of yet another pleasant green area close to the airport.

The acclaim accorded the development from the managing director of the airport, an Otley ward councillor and others seems largely based on claimed local employment gains.

However the lesson from similar office parks elsewhere is not so much that new jobs are created, rather that employees are simply transferred to the new office location from existing offices mainly already located in West Yorkshire..

Most office parks are located adjacent to motorways but not, of course, this one. The consequence will inevitably be a significant increase in peak hour volumes of cars using already overcrowded local roads like the A658 Bradford-Harrogate road.

Mr Anderson tells us he is excited about what he calls a dynamic ( whatever that means) new development. In an age when one is almost as likely to be speaking to a call centre in Bombay as one in Leeds, it is hard to see why most businesses would see it as a particular advantage for their offices to be located adjacent to an airport.

Are we to suppose that high flying executives, if you will forgive the pun, will see a need to spend the night in their offices simply to be sure of catching the early morning plane ?

No doubt all the new office space will eventually be taken up. But I would invite anyone to check in five to ten years' time to see just how many of them are airport related operations and how much genuinely local employment has in fact been generated.

Coun Clive Fox

99 Breary Lane East,

Bramhope.

No cuts

SIR, - Once again Coun Cooney, in an attempt to score political points, denegrates the work of the Chevin Rangers.

I will repeat the facts. There has been no cut in service, there are exactly the same number of rangers working on the Chevin as there were last year.

I supported the creation of a Chevin manager (an extra worker on the Chevin) to co-ordinate all council activities and encourage people to use the Chevin more. The Labour Party voted against this.

Coun Colin Campbell

Leeds City Council.

Score bore

SIR, - Your correspondence column has been taken over by local councillors trying to score political points against each other.

Can we have a separate section in which councillors can slag each other off, and another section for interesting correspondence?

C M Harper

Banksfield Avenue, Yeadon.

Hedgehogs

SIR, - The mild weather this autumn was all well and good for us but it was very confusing for hedgehogs!

Their instincts tell them to prepare for hibernation when it starts to get cold, but if it stays mild they think they have time to produce a second litter.

They, of course, don't have time, and these little ones that we call Autumn Orphans, inevitably struggle to survive growing up in such harsh conditions.

This year we have received many calls from people who have found small hedgehogs in difficulty that are frequently hypothermic.

To survive hibernation a hedgehog has to be an absolute minimum of 450gms at this time of the year.

Any less and they need help. Classic signs of hypothermia in hedgehogs are staggering (as if drunk) and lying out in the daytime.

These small or hypothermic hedgehogs need to be taken indoors and placed on a well-wrapped hot water bottle in a high-sided box. An old towel or T-shirt should be placed over the animal and white meat flavour pet food offered along with a dish of water.

A call to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890 801 will provide further advice or help to locate your nearest hedgehog rehabilitation centre.

FAY VASS

Chief Executive

British Hedgehog

Preservation Society,

Hedgehog House,

Dhustone,

Ludlow.

Bank closure

SIR, - I was astonished to learn of the Yorkshire Bank's plan to close its Guiseley branch (Wharfedale Observer, November 10).

I am writing to the bank, to remind it of Guiseley's importance and growing population - and in particular to draw attention to the need for locally accessible banking facilities for elderly and disabled people.

The Company says that its Yeadon branch is only 1.7 miles from Guiseley! I shall point out the the horrendous difficulty of parking in Yeadon.

If the Guiseley branch closes, customers will choose another bank - and who can blame them?

Coun John Bale

Guiseley/Rawdon Ward,

Leeds City Council.

Silver Cross

SIR, - Can I start by welcoming the decision of the Plans Panel West in rejecting the application for the over-development of the Silver Cross site in Guiseley.

At last the criticisms that I and others have been making about the revised plans have been recognised. Let us hope that the developers will now sit down with the local community and come up with a far more acceptable scheme.

On the same page that you carry the Silver Cross story you report that the local Guiseley and Rawdon Tory councillors stood up in a recent council meeting to berate the Government for its Planning Guidance PPG3 which they argue allows for over-development of sites. This is passing the buck in the extreme.

PPG3 encourages the development of between 30 and 50 dwelling units per hectare on brownfield sites as a way of making sure that there is best use of the land available.

Local Tory councillors Bale and Latty supported development plans for the Silver Cross site in excess of 60 units per hectare, well above the guidance they berate. Ironic or what?

Mike King

1A Renton Avenue,

Guiseley.

Play joy

SIR, - I am writing to express the pleasure I had recently in attending a performance of 'As You Like It' put on by the Otley Players.

I was visiting a friend who suggested we went on to the evening of the final performance. We were really impressed by the professionalism and liveliness of all the cast.

The lines were delivered so comprehensibly that no prior knowledge of the play would have been necessary but, most of all, we enjoyed the energy and delight in the piece shown by all the players.

I hope the Otley Players go on to put on many more performances.

Mary Cunningham

727A Sitio Peral,

8150-052 Sao Bras de

Alportel,

Algarve,

Portugal.

So unkind

SIR, - The late night phone-in on Radio Leeds was giving some very unfair treatment to 'lonely' people the other Wednesday night.

The presenter was pleading with 'lonely' people to come on and talk; then they got a telling off after being rudely 'cut off'. Poor treatment for depressives.

Surely it is wrong to treat the vulnerable like that on the public airways. They had to pluck up the courage to come on.

The presenter was just doing a job (rather unkindly this time). She means well and is sometimes polite. Can the BBC comment?

Chris Robinson

Town Street,

Horsforth.

Hunt spies

SIR, - So the hunting season is upon us again and the Countryside Alliance's new figurehead, Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, is assuring us that hunting smells the same and looks the same.

Hunts are claiming that more supporters are out in the field. This is all fine, as long as what the hunts are doing is within the law.

Our intelligence shows that the majority of hunts are keeping within the law, but a significant minority are criminalising themselves by continuing to hunt wild mammals with dogs.

To all those in the countryside or visiting the countryside, who abhor animal cruelty, we say, keep an eye out for illegal hunting.

John Cooper

Chairman,

League Against Cruel

Sports Ltd,