Leeds City Council

SIR, - Well done to Malcolm Naylor for injecting some sense into recent squabbles in your newspaper.

I think it is pathetic that local councillors have nothing better to do than attack our MP, Greg Mulholland, because he did not turn up to an event to which he was not invited.

I would not gatecrash something to which I was not invited, so this is just trying to score points. Trying and missing!

It is rather strange how John Eveleigh and Clive Fox, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of local politics, seem to be agreeing on everything these days. Perhaps it is true that the Labour and Conservative Parties are becoming so similar that they are of one mind on most issues now.

There is nothing that turns people off politics more than this type of bickering, so I only hope it stops now, once and for all.What we all want to hear about is councillors and MPs standing up for the people they represent.

I see Mr Mulholland has been campaigning hard to stop the closure of small shops, which I applaud. Ironic then, that his victory in the General Election led to the closure of the North-West Leeds Conservative shop in Bramhope. Still, perhaps a forward-looking business is prepared to take its place.

And I'm afraid Coun Fox is once again being what is known as 'economical with the truth' when he says that the Leeds North-West Conservatives have offices more central to the constituency. The truth is that Leeds North-West Conservatives have indeed 'shut up shop' and moved out of the constituency to where they have a chance of doing slightly better.

This is unlike Leeds North-West where they came a poor third and have now only three out of 12 councillors. No wonder they have called time on their premises in this seat.

So, enough of party political rubbish and let's hear what all the main parties have to say about things that people care about.

B HUSTLER

38 Union Court,

Otley.

Happy visits

SIR, - The picture of the old Wharfemeadows pool and of Clive Fox with the Chippendale stamp brought to mind happy visits to the pool during the last war when teenagers met their friends there from Whitsuntide to autumn when it closed.

Those few months didn't leave much time to improve one's swimming, but I wonder how many people we rubbed shoulders with who made their names around the world. There were competitions including Prince Henry's boys who raced each other, notably Geoffrey Thomas, now a retired vicar living in York and John Slater who became lifelong friends.

Being wartime, I never saw any pictorial evidence of our schooldays. When John left school he worked in Bramhope at MGM. I expect some residents remember this house. After service in the RAF and police, where he was encouraged to swim he went into court work and became a highly respected clerk to the magistrates at Halifax.

He followed our school motto 'Ich Dieu' and bought a piece of land at Lumbutts Damar, Todmorden, to use for the New Year's Day swim and raise money for an indoor pool there. He also fought for a new pool at Halifax and was the first person to swim in it.

John was a pioneer of outdoor swimming and after breaking the record for swimming Windermere he became a founder member of the British Long Distance Swimming Association, serving as its secretary for 22 years. He was a source of encouragement for swimmers of all ages, especially the Channel, having himself held records for Lake Bala, Coniston, Ullswater, Torbay and Morecambe Bay.

In 1980, he was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. John and his wife, Marion, also a European swimming champion, went to live in Denia in 1987, to enjoy the warmer waters of Spain and to take part in various long distance events, latterly the world masters swimming championships in Ricciona, Italy.

After two hip replacements and reaching 75, his last letter said he was thinking of retiring from masters racing because of the expense. Within weeks he was competing in the 1,500 metres race of Barcelona, and with two lengths to go, he had a massive heart attack and died in hospital.

Although this was a good way for him to go in his element, it would have appalled him to create such sadness for Marion, his two daughters and granddaughters. Friends around the world grieved for this respected son of Otley whose first river was the Wharfe.

C D Helliwell (Mrs)

Grange Road,

Dacre,

Harrogate.

Lost gardens

SIR, - I would like to echo Councillor Clive Fox's comments ('Councillor seeking to close garden loophole', Wharfedale andAiredale Observer, February 16) about there being an urgent need to close the planning loophole that allows gardens to disappear under a wave of residential over-development.

Councils are almost powerless to prevent building over gardens if the land in question is classed as a brownfield site. Brownfield sites are areas of land that have already been built on, and consequently the Government encourages redevelopment on such land.

As gardens linked to the property are also classed as brownfield land, it is relatively easy for developers to get permission to knock down a property and build a new one in its place that swallows up the garden.

Some of Wharfedale's most prized areas are characterised by their green and open gardens. If this practice of allowing developers to build over them continues, the region's identity and environment will suffer significantly for a long time to come.

The solution is simple: Gardens should cease to be classified as brownfield land and councils should be given more power to adjudicate on brownfield planning applications.

Coun Barry Anderson

Conservative,

Adel and Wharfedale Ward,

Leeds City Council.

Every sympathy...

SIR, - I have every sympathy with the views of Lynn Cusack asking the Chocolate Shop in Yeadon not to sell 'Cannabis Sweets'. I would have thought that any responsible person would not have given a second thought to stocking such a product.

She should be aware that the customer is king and I expect a lot of decent local people will vote with their feet.

Standards these days are bad enough and shopkeepers are there to serve the community and not just to stoop every way but which to make a profit.

Alec Jackson

Stone-Lea,

Leathley Lane,

Menston.

...No sympathy

SIR, - Practice nurse Lynn Cusack said she was appalled to see the pastilles on sale at The Chocolate Shop on Yeadon Town Street. ('Angry mum protests at sweets with drug name').

Does she really think names of sweets lead people to become drug addicts?

What about 'Acid Drops' and the perfume called Opium? And of course our old favorites - 'wine gums' could turn kids into alcoholics!

Now I understand why the UK changed the currency from LSD to pounds and pennies

Better not use the word ecstasy again, in case it confuses kids! What nonsense!

Alun Buffry

203 Woodcock Road,

Norwich.

Service 'bleak'

SIR, - Carer's resource centres, like the one mentioned in last week's letter from Anne Smyth, Director of the Harrogate Carers Resource Centre, are well intentioned, but only scratch the surface of carers needs.

Whilst not denigrating the work they do may I, a carer, give a fuller picture?

Most carers' organisations do the best they can, but are minimally funded by government and local authorities, and this inhibits campaigning. What they do is woefully inadequate and more propaganda than support. The emphasis is on self-help rather than support because it costs nothing.

Because the Government holds the purse strings it keeps control of organised protest. And the root of carer's troubles is the uncaring Labour Government.

Ms Smyth says 'who cares for the carer?' Well certainly not New Labour. The elderly, disabled and carers have been on Labour's hit list from the first day they came to power and they attack the weak.

Labour is doing as little as it can get away with and cutting care funding to local authorities. As a result, some local authorities are cutting respite care and increasing means tested charges. Some authorities, like Sheffield by as much as 300 per cent.

These are the issues Carers Resource Centres should be bringing to the public's attention, not support for exhausted, emotionally damaged carers. Preventative action is required not patches and propaganda.

Labour's treatment of carers is scandalous. Carers' benefits are the lowest and pensioner carers get nothing at all. Local authorities have a legal obligation to provide assessments of carers needs, but here is the joke. They have no obligation to provide assessed needs and often don't.

Carers are at the bottom tier of society. We have no value other than as cheap labour and there is no prospect of this ever changing.

Ms Smyth rightly describes carer' services as 'bleak' and under Labour's regime of inequality, bureaucracy has replaced care.

Malcolm Naylor,

21 Grange View,

Otley .

Having a ball

SIR, - We attended the Vienniese Ball at the Kings Hall, Ilkley, on Saturday, February 11, promoted to raise £1 million by Gala Promotions for the British Heart Foundation.

We would just like to say 'thank you' to everyone involved for their hard work in making the night so memorable. The atmosphere was delightful and all who attended had made the effort to get into the spirit of things and get the 'glad rags on'.

The orchestra worked hard to make the Vienniese evening special, along with the young dancers. who gave a lovely performance of the waltz and ballet, and it was such a pity that there was such a small number of people in attendance.

Perhaps, if there is to be another one, a lot more advertising of the event would help. After all, it is for a very good cause.

J and K JACKSON

297 Bradford Road,

Otley.

FOOTNOTE: The winner of our competition for tickets to the Viennese Ball was Susan Singleton, of Yeadon.

Help with bills

SIR, - Gas and electricity price hikes affect us all, and the latest spate may have left your readers worrying about how they will cope with the extra expense.

So Ofgem, the Ggovernment energy regulator, has teamed up with Energywatch, the consumer watchdog, to come up with three simple steps that people in Yorkshire can take to be 'Energy Smart'.

And the good news is that just by taking these steps, readers can still save money on their energy bills, despite rising prices:

Switch supplier: Customers in Yorkshire are paying up to £100 more for their energy if they have never switched supplier.

Be energy efficient: This can save £££s on bills - free advice on how to do this is available from all energy suppliers.

Change tariff: Customers still paying for their energy by standard credit could save around £30-£35 by paying by direct debit.

To change energy supplier, readers should contact consumer watchdog Energywatch on 08459 060708 or visit www.energywatch.org.uk

Alistair Buchanan

Chief Executive,

Ofgem (The Office of Gas

and Electricity Markets),

9 Millbank

London

SW1 3GE .

When is a cut...?

SIR, - Last week the Labour Party claimed there had been a cut in the Social Services budget.

In 2003/4, the last year Labour-controlled Leeds City Council, Social

Services spending was £166,526 million.

The following year under a Liberal Democrat-led Council spending was

£195.753 million, and this year it is £199,196 million.Readers can draw their own conclusions as to why Labour should claim a cut.

Coun Colin Campbell

Otley and Yeadon Ward,

Leeds City Council.