SIR - I read with interest an article in the Craven Herald a few weeks ago that Aireville Swimming Pool was going to extend its gym.

Although I applaud this decision and congratulate them on their success, there is one thing I feel Skipton desperately needs.

Why don't they include a soft play area for children? Skipton is a thriving market town and a reasonably wealthy town. I cannot believe that we don't have a soft play area within a 10-mile radius.

The gym extension has obviously paid for itself through membership fees and if the manager and Craven District Council had the foresight to build a soft play area it would also pay for itself 10 times over.

Most of the soft play areas in different towns can be run by the council or by franchise. I seriously hope the management team at Skipton Pool and the district council will look into this matter.

I strongly believe the parents of Skipton would support this venture and it would give more parents the chance to exercise and use the other facilities of the pool. Soft play areas are extremely popular and I really feel it would benefit the pool and the children of Skipton. The average price per child is approximately £3.95 for 45 minutes. I would be interested to hear from the management team and Craven District Council regarding this matter.

Elaine Farrier,

Carleton.

SIR - May I through your columns give a big thank you to the anonymous person who very kindly posted my missing rail card and other items to me.

I thought wrongly that they had been taken from my backpack when I was walking part of the Dales Way last Saturday. I had stopped for refreshments and there was a crowd of youngsters around.

So how wrong we can be at times, so apologies to them! And a big thank you for someone's honesty.

Anne Kay,

Princes Drive, Skipton.

SIR - Horrible it is to have to say this, but someone has got to tell our arborally ignorant younger generation that, as trees grow bigger and more beautiful, the sooner they are more likely to be cut down for their lucrative timber - a classic example being that fine Skipton tree pictured in the Craven Herald.

It is as if there is an arborial expert competition across England to secure the most timber from the most public and revered trees with the least sensible reason for destroying the trees.

Idiotic reasons are given such as people slipping on fallen autumn leaves, or that the trees are too tall. Another reason is that trees are planted too near houses deliberately so their roots suck out the "rising damp" from below the house.

Sometimes I feel that arborial expertise is a mental disease in our buzz saw culture and the lack of big trees in our country is a measure of the timber merchants' professional efficiency.

Bob Leakey,

Sutcliffe House, Settle.

SIR - I would like to thank the staff of Skipton Building Society who responded to a challenge from Volunteer Centre Craven to celebrate the Year of the Volunteer and transformed the patch of bare land adjacent to Skipton Railway Station into an attractive garden.

A great deal of planning and co-ordination went into this project, not only by the senior executives who undertook the physical work, but also by other support staff at the society.

Thanks should also go to Patricia McLaughlin, development officer, leisure and community facilities at Craven District Council. Patricia not only designed the garden and lent her horticultural knowledge with regard to choice of plants, but she also project managed the voluntary work undertaken by more than 50 Johnson & Johnson staff in Aireville Park last week - another project suggested by the Volunteer Centre.

We are increasingly being asked to find volunteering projects such as these which are suitable for groups of employees or young people to undertake in the local community and it is an area of work we would like to develop. If anyone would like to suggest such a project, please contact us on 01756 701648.

Dee Pollitt

Co-ordinator

Volunteer Centre Craven

27 Newmarket Street,

Skipton.

SIR - The potential disaster alluded to by Mr Mason (Craven Herald letters May 27) has been averted as, within three days of my contacting Neville Allan, head of waste management at Craven District Council, the armchair had been removed from Waller Hill Beck.

Although the Civic Society has a team of volunteers who regularly remove litter from both the Ginnel and the Wilderness areas, items are occasionally deposited in the beck which are too large for them to deal with. There has never been an occasion when we have passed on the task to the refuse department of the council that they have failed us.

Among items removed previous to the armchair were two upholstered settees and a single bed mattress, all so saturated as to be very difficult to lift out of the water and up the steep banking.

It is sad that amenity areas, created to benefit the public, result in an extra burden on hardworking council employees because of the irresponsible behaviour of a minority. The Civic Society wishes to record its gratitude and respect to the council's waste management team who do such valuable work for the community.

Gwynne Walters

Secretary,

Skipton Civic Society.

SIR - Recently I had a stroke and was in Airedale Hospital for several days. Thankfully it was a mild stroke and I was discharged after six days.

My primary purpose in writing is to thank and commend all, without exception, the hospital staff, especially those on Ward 5, who were very patient with a very impatient patient!

I cannot thank them enough for their care and kindness. I thank too the friends and neighbours who sent good wishes, those were good to have.

This old Fidler has been playing a bit out of tune but I am slowly getting back in key!

John Fidler,

Skipton Road, Embsay.