Letters to the Editor

drivers ignoring 'slow' signs

SIR, - Now that school has returned it is increasingly evident that vehicles of all kinds travel at excessive and potentially dangerous speeds on Station Road, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Despite the 29 painted signs advising SLOW and the centre carriageway mini bumps, vehicles frequently pass under the railway bridge at 40 to 50 mph.

Downhill, drivers are then within 70 metres of the bus queue and single lane restriction at Smithy lane, and would have no possibility of stopping if necessary at the crossing for children going to Burley and Woodhead Primary School .

These children are often in company with siblings in push chairs and toddlers.

The same situation is evident at the Langford Lane /Station road junction, where again primary school children going to Burley Oaks face similarly dangerous conditions.

As advice has no effect on drivers, it is high time to impose physical restrictions at these dangerous locations. The only effective speed control on Moor lane is the full width strip at the Robin Hole entry point. This full width carriageway control should be used at a location 15 metres above Hag Farm Lane to slow vehicles on the descent to the railway bridge and also at two positions, 20 metres either side of the Station road /Langford lane intersection.

A 20 mph speed limit should apply to Station Road and be enforced with mobile speed cameras.

I would also like to see the bus stop for schoolchildren moved from Smithy Lane/Station Road, as the manoeuvring of double decker buses across Station Road, and into the railway station entrance ramp, is an added hazard at this dangerous location.

The buses also obscure the sight line for downhill traffic to the single lane restriction on Station Road.

Let us do something immediately to physically control vehicle speed, before we pay a high price for failing to act to protect our children .

Brian Sayer

1 Ash Tree Walk,

Burley in Wharfedale.

Bridge issue

SIR, - D Ascough's letter against the Burley Bridge project, calls for comment. One must speculate as to how many people were interviewed regarding the statement that 90 per cent of people are against the bridge.

Perhaps emotional prejudice was the motive. Perhaps this prejudice motivated the swipe at the Rambler's Association, which hardly related to the main thrust of this correspondence.

The suggestion that those who want to enjoy our local countryside should get into our cars and drive to Askwith takes no account of those without the necessary transport. Also, fortunate people like us may not want to undertake the necessary journey.

Encouragement to jump into the car is hardly environmentally friendly and negates the current emphasis on healthy living.

Finally, the uninhibited way in which developers are allowed to erect monstrous tall houses obviously erodes quality of life in our village.

JOHN BUSBRIDGE

4 Wrexham Road,

Burley-in-Wharfedale.

No urgency

SIR, - The Labour councillors called a Special Meeting of Otley Town Council on Monday, September 13, to discuss the future of the Civic Centre.

This was the night before a petition with 3,300 signatures was handed to the Town Mayor asking that the Civic Centre not be sold off.

Under the arcane rules of the council, this has to be debated at an Executive Committee meeting. The last meeting of the Executive Committee was held on July 19. The Labour group had put down a number of items about the Civic Centre.

The agenda was very full, and our items on disability access were put down at item 11, and the feasibility study for the Civic Centre and the consultation process was put at item 16. These were after such vital items as the dates for issuing agendas, (item 4), the rail link to Otley (in 2115!) (item 5), and telephone boxes (item 8).

The Liberals filibustered all night so that just as we were getting to discuss the Civic Centre they declared the meeting closed, and the rest of the agenda would be discussed at the next executive meeting on November 1, more than three months away.

The Labour Group called a Special Meeting so that the Civic Centre could be discussed before November. It started at 8pm, and before anything could be discussed, Councillor Colin Campbell moved a procedural motion that all the items on the agenda concerning the Civic Centre be not discussed and all the Liberals and Tories passed the motion.

Your reporter was right, we were furious that the ruling group had prevented us, yet again, from discussing their sale of the Civic Centre. We walked out, after protest.

Councillor Jim Spencer is reported to have said that we had shown disrespect. How could anyone respect a group that stifles scrutiny of their actions? He then said that our walkout was a display of anarchy, and that we are rogue elements.

I am content for the town to judge who are the rogues - those who want to sell off the Civic Centre, or those who are trying to save it. He must have realised the backlash that their actions have caused as they have called another Special Meeting to discuss the Civic Centre, on October 11, only three weeks before the original meeting. There doesn't seem to be much urgency.

Gerald McGowan

Otley Town Councillor,

Labour, Manor Ward,

15 Queens Place,

Otley.

No disrespect

SIR, - May I be allowed to respond to the intemperate and inaccurate remarks made by Councillor Jim Spencer in the 'Wharfedale' last week (Thousands back bid to save civic centre).

At last week's council meeting, the ruling Lib Dem/Conservative group refused to allow a debate on the future of the civic centre. They used their majority votes to support a standing order that they wouldn't even read out or explain and the meeting was over before it had begun.

I remind readers that more than 3,200 signatures were collected in the town in a matter of weeks in support of retaining the current Civic Centre in its present role. It is clearly a very important issue in the town, but not to the councillors in the ruling group.

Coun Spencer wrongly described last week's meeting as an emergency meeting and went on to say that he didn't think there was anything urgent to discuss which is why they voted not to allow a debate. There is no such thing as an emergency meeting under local council rules.

Your reporter described it accurately as a 'special meeting', which can be called at any time by the chairman or members of that committee. The meeting was called in accordance with the rules and there was no reason why the issues should not have been debated.

Coun Spencer referred to our attempts to get an explanation from him and his colleagues on their decision to deny us a debate as 'a display of anarchy' and referred to us as 'rogue elements like this who try to push us into chaos'.

For my part, I cannot recall any behaviour in council in the past 15 months or more that remotely justifies such comments and I suggest that he withdraws them and apologises unreservedly.

Just imagine, when the ultra respectful Councillor Betty Bevan asked if she could just tell the committee what a 94-year-old constituent of hers had asked her to say about the civic centre, she was refused and was told that asking to speak was being disrespectful - she's now part of Coun Spencer's 'rogue element' no doubt - well, I never.

Coun Kevin Cooney

Labour, West Chevin,

18 Sunnydale Ridge

Otley.

Clean toilets

SIR, - I wholeheartedly endorse the letter from Jeanette Stevens on (Wharfedale Observer, September 9).

Many residents of Otley and visitors have written their concerns regarding the lack of not only clean lavatories, but absolute lack of public conveniences in Otley. This omission is deplorable in a busy market town with many visitors.

I do agree that someone as far away as London should not be able to dictate in this way. A few years ago Otley had perfectly adequate clean lavatories with an attendant. Couldn't Otley take an example from Skipton: Following public inquiries a significant number of people questioned said they would be willing to pay a fee for clean, attended toilet facilities.

City fathers please take note: We cannot walk cross-legged any longer.

Elizabeth Hodgson

Otley

(Full address supplied).

Litter louts

SIR, - I have friends who live in the centre of Otley with a front door leading directly on to the street.

It would appear that certain members of our community see this as a licence to regularly throw chips across the pavement, or on to people's cars, or even let their dogs foul directly outside the front door.

What a nice treat such sights are first thing in the morning.

RICHARD HAMER

(Full address supplied)

No teacher

SIR, - May I take this opportunity to reply to the letter from the Prince Henry Grammar School pupils who saw nothing untoward with their behaviour on the X84 form Otley to Leeds on September 7.

Firstly, I am not in the habit of writing spurious letters to newspapers.

Secondly, 'THEY' did not feel 'THEY' were being 'OVERLY' loud; perhaps it would be preferable in future, if you gave some consideration to others and not just to yourselves.

Thirdly, it was not my unacceptable behaviour that brought a slur on Prince Henry's Grammar School, but the unacceptable behaviour of those wearing the school uniform.

Fourthly, the fact that the group were unaccompanied by a teacher or responsible adult seems to have gone unnoticed.

The rest is silence.

Steve Mitchell

Course Leader,

Certificate in Project

Management Skills,

Yorkshire First,

Leeds Met. Training,

Brunswick Campus.

Too classy?

SIR, - What would the legendary Reg Holdsworth of Bettabuys make of it all? Smile please? Or rather, pull a face and get to Netto if it's all getting too much for you.

I'm afraid it's all being totally underwhelming for me personally, how was it for you darling?

Do all those smartly dressed bigwig suits, ducking and diving between the aisles trying to suss out the moral high ground and buying habits of Amanda Lander and Doris Biggs do it for you? Do they?

Do you feel a bit more middle class, have you thought about subscribing to the Daily Mail, cancelling Benidorm in November and going on a fair trade safari to outer Mongolia?

Whilst it's very noble and unique of Waitrose to have a sense of decency in not screwing their suppliers into the ground, it would also seem there's only so far we're prepared to go in subsidising their clear conscience in the pursuit of tea bags, bin liners and Mrs Pataks chicken korma sauces.

The people of Otley want Asda or Morrisons. Instead they've got a scruffy, no frills 9p tin of tomatoes or the most ethical range of plums (probably) on the planet.

What next? Mohammed Al Fayed to switch on the Christmas lights and declare a plan to turn Captain Value's into Harrods? Yes dear, more reasons to get a free bus pass out of town.

Dan Cooney

Los Dolces,

Villamartin,

Alicante.