Letters to the Editor

SIR, - New traffic lights in Ilkley 'easing traffic congestion'?

I have read about the A65 lights in the Gazette but no-one is listening to the people of Ilkley. I have written to Ann Cryer and her office was not interested. It is with regret I find I have to put pen to paper and waste my time complaining about traffic lights. However, this is a matter that must be addressed.

I live in Addingham. To get to work in Ilkley should take five minutes. I would take the Addingham bypass A65 straight to Ilkley town centre - five minutes.

However, since the new lights at 'Victoria Avenue' and the pedestrian lights at All Saints' School, Ilkley, the same journey takes 20 minutes.

Now, to avoid the queuing traffic on the Addingham bypass, I go through the village centre (defeating the object of a bypass), then nip on to the old back road to Ilkley and push out on to the A65 at Sandbeds.

Queue with the rest of the traffic to Victoria Avenue, (this is due to there not being a passing place for right turners wishing to avoid the All Saints' lights.) I then queue at All Saints' as the lights change to red quickly and don't allow any traffic through, so people rat-run around the school.

In my opinion this is a joke . . . I would like the Gazette to sort this out for me and the other drivers queuing. Keep the A65 moving and people will not need to rat-run.

ALISTAIR FREEGARD

19, Wells Close,

Addingham.

Fox hunting

SIR, - I feel obliged to break it to Victor Bean that not everything he views on the internet is any more reliable than what he reads in the Daily Mail. His contention that the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, which he takes as his guiding light, is an independent source in the fox-hunting debate, is simply laughable.

BASC is openly in favour of fox-hunting, shooting hares, flushing foxes out of their bolt-holes, rabbiting and other animal-unfriendly activities. Its experts may advise the Government on countryside activities but does the Government take the slightest notice?

Foxes do not attack or kill cats unless in the extremely rare instance that they feel defensive of their cubs. If he has incontrovertible evidence that a fox has killed a cat let's see it. If he himself has seen it happen what did he do to stop it?

Obnoxious human beings can be guilty of wounding or killing cats but that doesn't mean that we are free to chase after them until they collapse with exhaustion and then have them massacred by a pack of hounds as favoured for foxes by Victor Bean in his adulation of fox-hunting.

AUDREY HARGREAVES

6, North Street,

Addingham.

Over the top

SIR, - Whilst sympathising with an Ilkley pensioner's treatment by an over officious security guard at Ilkley Station I do think that to devote a major headline and half a front page, October 21 edition, to this occurrence is a bit over the top.

Are we going to see some more investigative reporting on similar lines in future? Eg: Intrepid reporter spends three weeks in Middleton Woods. Front-page headline - ' First leaf falls in Middleton Woods'.

Eg: Intrepid reporter dresses in shorts and participates in games in Ilkley school playground. Front page headline - 'Four-year-old found cheating at conkers'. Eg: Intrepid reporter in desperation trips up pensioner on The Grove. Front-page headline - 'Pensioner loses pension book'.

We haven't yet reached the front-page classic as reported in an Otley paper, 'Newt found in bath water' - but we are getting pretty close.

Granted that major news items for Ilkley do not occur every week. Even when they do, such as Ilkley for the first time being granted best floral town with a gold medal, the major headline in your edition dealt with a dispute between a teacher and her headmaster - an event of interest to two people.

Come on, Editor, get a grip on your front page!

KEITH G HARTLEY

Hangingstone,

Hangingstone Road,

Ilkley.

Footnote: the gold medal story was on the front page with a large picture and three full pages were devoted to it inside. - Editor.

Immigration

SIR, - Ann Cryer is an admired MP whom I respect and like. It is therefore sad to have to cross swords with her.

She has attacked Migration Watch as 'a right-wing anti-immigration group' (Ilkley Gazette, September 30). This is quite wrong on both counts - I write as a subscribing member. Migration Watch is completely apolitical and is against illegal immigration and all abuses of correct entry procedures into the UK.

It is primarily an information-gathering organisation and has a distinguished and balanced governing body led by a former British ambassador.

Mrs Cryer is to be congratulated for her work on abuses in this field, including the problem of forced marriages. She probably knows, however, that a recent letter to a Minister from a senior civil servant stated 'We must stop saying that Migration Watch exaggerates - many of its figures are lower than those in our own internal (ie, unpublished) surveys.

RODERICK THOMSON

12, Grove Road,

Menston.

Obligations

SIR, - Once again, the planning decision has gone against those wishing to redevelop the Wheatley Hotel for housing.

No doubt the decision will go to appeal, and it is to be hoped and expected that the momentum will be maintained continually to remind the planners of the rightness of the very commendable decision they have just made. As importantly, it is to be expected that Bradford Council will find ways of ensuring that Punch Taverns fulfil their civic obligations in Ben Rhydding.

One presumes that they are already paying a proper financial contribution to the community on which they are currently imposing themselves, and that it will be ensured that they now behave responsibly as regards the upkeep of the building and grounds, until an owner with proper commitment to the licensing trade can be found for a most valuable local asset.

Clive Upton

4 High Wheatley,

Ben Rhydding.

War answers

SIR, - Next Tuesday, an event with global consequences occurs - the US elections. Since George Bush - followed by Tony Blair - declared a pre-emptive strike on Iraq, to avert the so-called threat from Iraqi 'weapons of mass destruction', it has been officially admitted that no such weapons existed.

Thus, as Kofi Anan, secretary to the UN, recently stated, the attack was illegal. People in Ilkley and district who opposed this attack are therefore right to demand justice - and that's not the end of the story, so far as Mr Bush is concerned.

Today, further questions have to be put. As occupying powers, the US and UK are legally responsible for the safety and basic conditions of life of the occupied population. Why, then, we must ask, have the US kept no records of Iraqi civilian casualties since its mission was declared 'accomplished'?

How many Iraqis are still forced to use polluted water? How many are still without reliable electricity? How many Iraqi hospitals are still without essential supplies? . . . And why put in troops if they cannot make an effective peace? These are just a few of the questions that Bush - and Blair - still have to answer.

For any readers who feel repelled by this lack of humanitarian support, there will be an opportunity on Saturday, October 30, to register their protest, when the Ilkley Peace Group holds a vigil on The Grove from 10.30am to noon, to commemorate the (unknown) tens of thousands who have lost their lives - and are still losing them - across this occupied country.

CORINNE WALES, JANE SOUTH, BRONWEN EDWARDS, BRIAN MEARA, JOHN DIXON

Ilkley Peace Group,

c/o The Quaker

Meeting House,

Ilkley.