Letters to the Editor

SIR, - During the local elections of 2003 Lib Dem town councillors announced that they had identified a site for a new Otley Civic Centre and shortly after the election linked with other political groups to pass a resolution giving notice to Leeds City Council of their intention to leave the civic centre.

Town councillors from the Labour group opposed this from the outset, arguing that it had to be less expensive to refurbish the fine, historic existing building than to put up a modern, soulless replacement.

We have campaigned hard and linked with people of all political persuasions (and none) in the Save Otley Civic Centre (SOCC) campaign group.

As a result of our pressure, I believe, the town council did agree to a feasibility study by an independent architect to look at a range of options, both refurbishing the existing civic centre and providing a new building.

Like other town councillors, I received last week a letter headed 'confidential' from Andrew Carter, deputy leader of the city council, telling me that the architect's report was complete and would be available from the town clerk from Thursday, June 2.

In fact, it wasn't available on that day but, of course, it was front page headlines in 'the Wharfedale' - 'MP sparks new debate over centre' with details of the costs of some of the options looked at in the report.

It is surely wrong that our MP was given a copy of the report before Otley town councillors since he hasn't been involved in the campaign, but also that he was so insensitive enough to comment on it at this stage.

He doesn't need to convince me of his view that the best option is to refurbish the civic centre, nor the people of Otley, 3,500 of whom signed a petition of support for retaining the existing building in a matter of a few weeks last year.

It's his own Lib Dem town councillors that he has to persuade; they still seem unable to accept that they made a huge misjudgment in the first place.

Mr Mulholland ends his comments with the words that the people of Otley should not be asked to pay twice.

I look forward to hearing that he has persuaded his colleagues on the city council to foot the bill.

Coun Kevin Cooney

18 Sunnydale Ridge,

Otley.

Bible folly

SIR, - Not for a long time have I read such nonsense regarding The Bible being removed from hospitals because of the spread of MRSA.

This in my opinion is yet another excuse aimed at gradually ousting out the Christian faith from what has always been a Christian country.

Point one: if The Bible is to be removed because of MRSA, then so should all books, magazines, pens, clipboards, remote controls and visitors, also all cutlery and crockery should be disposable.

Point two: I am well aware that we are a multi-cultural country, but I refuse to believe that a Muslim, Sikh, or any other ethnic minority person would possibly be offended by a Bible or a crucifix. They are more interested in being loyal to their own faith, beliefs and traditions - which is how it should be.

As long as there is provision made for all faiths and denominations why should any be excluded, which is why it is ludicrous to assume that Christian literature should offend anyone.

Let us all live and let live instead of behaving like frightened mice, afraid of giving offence and giving up on our last shred of any semblance of faith, honour and pride in worshipping our God in the name of Jesus.

It seems to me that the persecution of Christians is happening right here and will continue as long as no-one stands up to be counted.

Point three: There is a policy within the hospital trust 'chaplanicy'. that anyone, whoever and whatever they believe in, a minister or representative of that faith will be provided, no one is excluded, so why the ban?

L Noble

The Gills, Otley.

On the fence

SIR, - Thank goodness for your letters columns so that public opinion can be debated. Save Otley Civic Centre (SOCC) group has worked tirelessly for just what our new MP has decided to promote, at this late stage, and that is the refurbishment of Otley Civic Centre.

A total of 3,500 signatures on a petition (his not amongst them) will give him some idea of the feeling in this town about retaining the building for its present use. Now Greg Mulholland it is up to you and your LibDem/Tory-run Leeds City Council to come up with the funding.

Otley's Leeds City Councillor Colin Campbell (Lib Dem) is suggesting that SOCC set themselves up as a trust. Stop passing the buck Councillor Campbell and do something positive yourself instead of 'sitting on the fence'.

Mrs Marjorie Dunn

42 St David's Road, Otley.

Clock saga

SIR, - Regarding your recent report on the latest developments in the saga of the Civic Centre, it astonishes me that it seems to be taken for granted that the community of Otley should be required to pay for the refurbishment or replacement of the building with, perhaps, some sort of handout from the city council if we should be lucky.

Surely, in any field except that of local government, the owners of the building (the city council) would be required to maintain, refurbish, or replace it. It is self evident that the town council could only raise the funds necessary by prohibitively expensive and long term loans, and I imagine that most Otley residents would object to this.

Now that some figures have been produced I only hope that the refurbishment option will be adopted rather than replacement. Also I would hope that the city council will shoulder the full cost. It can find the thousands needed to pave Briggate as a pedestrian precinct, and the millions needed to refurbish the Grand Theatre.

Edward P Brear

108 St David's Road, Otley.

Sports field

SIR, - Further to your front page report and editorial concerning the Weston Lane Junior Sports and Social Club. As we made clear in our press release, quoted in your article, we regret and have apologised for the fact that our contractors began work to set up a site compound on the playing fields. However, I believe some background and perspective needs to be provided not least in the angle of your camera shot.

Leeds North West Homes is implementing a wide range of much needed improvement works on the Weston Estate which include the whole house refurbishment of 47 properties. The contract will run for seven months and will require a local site compound from which to operate for the duration of the contract.

Finding a suitable site large enough in the compact streets that make up the estate has proved very difficult, not least as the most obvious site, the cleared former school site on Weston Ridge, is not available.

The most suitable site identified at the time was the playing field on Weston Lane. The land is currently designated for informal play purposes and is not currently a designated playing field where more formal controls and risk assessments have to be undertaken.

In fact, the land had been held by the council's Neighbourhoods and Housing Department and had only just been transferred to Leisure Services.

Although the land is owned by the council, the club had not contacted anyone at the council about their plans to hold a tournament in July. Needless to say if we had have been aware of this we would not have considered any part of the site as suitable for a compound or the storage of work containers. We do however fully accept that there was an obligation on ourselves to contact them about our plans.

I met with the organisers of the football club on June 10 to apologise in person. Following the meeting I am confident that, with the co-operation of our contractors who are committed to assisting local community groups, we can put together a programme of work to help the club complete the renovation of their clubhouse and for one or more of our contractors sponsoring the team's football kit.

I have also put them in touch with the appropriate officers at Leisure Services with regard to them formalising their use of the land as a playing field and to explain the preparations they will need to make when holding a major event on council owned land. We hope therefore that this particular cloud will have a silver lining for the club.

John Hocking

Chief Officer,

Leeds North West Homes.

Memories of scout camp site

SIR, for many years before the outbreak of the Second World War, scouts and other boys from Otley had camped on Shaw Field, part of the Danefield Estate.

They did not have far to go, they could walk there, they were not far away from home and they had the freedom to wander through open woodland and a large open space - the ideal place for scouting and open air activities.

It was the district camp site for the Wharfedale Boys Association. Occasionally it was used by groups for the town for troop camps and sometimes for district activities. A large hut was kept there for use by anyone camping.

When the war started, camping ceased. Troops were stationed on Shaw Field and the whole of the Danefield Estate was used for training purposes. When the army gave up using the area, scouts were able to start camping there again. The hut had been well looked after by the men stationed on the site.

As soon as possible, a Wharfedale Scout Association District camp was held there, and an honoured guest during the weekend was Major Horton-Fawkes. While there and a few days later he had a long talk with the district scout commissioner, Mr C Chubb, about the use of Danefield by the scouts. Shortly after this he decided to donate Shaw Field and the whole of Danefield to the people of Otley as a memorial to all the boys, scouts and others who had spent so many happy hours there but would never return to do so again.

He also expressed a wish that Shaw Field would always be available to scouts to camp there and that trees would not be planted on it.

With the passage of time, some of these things seem to have been forgotten. Unfortunately, the use of Shaw Field for camping and the freedom of the open space around very quickly disappeared. The Wharfedale Scout Association found a new camping site at Curly Hill, Ilkley.

The hut, which had been well looked after for many years began to deteriorate and was eventually used to extend the headquarters of one of the scout groups in Otley. The site where the hut was is where it is proposed to have the Chevin Eco Centre.

N H Graville

District Camp Ste Warden, 1940-47.

Bradford Road, Otley.