Letters to the editor

SIR:- Mr Jowett (in his letter 'Speed spin' of May 6) may be surprised to learn that I agree with much of what he says.

I, too, would like to see more police patrols and to see reduced speed limits around schools, but how can these be enforced without some sort of mechanical means? How ever many police we have they cannot be everywhere at once!

I was asked specifically about speed cameras and was careful to reply that they are only part of the road safety solution. Speed, however, is implicated in many accidents, exacerbates dangerous situations, makes living conditions difficult for urban and rural residents, and causes fear and high noise levels.

Reducing speeding can, and does, ameliorate many of these situations. Incidentally, the cost of accidents to our emergency services and NHS far outweighs the cost of cameras, to say nothing of the human misery suffered as a result of lives lost and permanent injury sustained.

An alternative system that has proved successful in mainland Europe uses roadside radar sensors to spot speeders at which point a red light brings them to a halt. Whilst the 'smiley face' signage has its usage and might well deter drivers exceeding the speed limit by a small margin, I doubt if it would deter the 280 or so drivers a day who drive at over 40 miles per hour here, some ten a day at over 60 miles per hour at the last count.

Motorways, our fastest roads, are our safest roads, says Mr Jowett. Yes, but for all sorts of reasons other than the speed of traffic. These notions have already been so well rehearsed they need no explanation here. However, if there is a crash, the damage is likely to be severe.

A call to the RAC safety division or any reputable garage will readily correct the mistaken idea that stopping distances prescribed in the Highway Code are halved by ABS. Not should reliance on this system be used as an excuse to raise speed limits. A safety advance, but it serves only to preserve steering capability during braking.

The natural laws of physics still dictate that it proportionately takes longer and further for a vehicle travelling at 50 of 60 miles per hour to stop than a vehicle travelling at 20 or 30 miles per hour, and the damage done on impact will similarly be proportionately greater at high speeds. Vehicles may have improved with seat belts and airbags but flesh is still weak.

When the emergency services and coroners regularly say that accidents and deaths could have been prevented if only the traffic had been travelling faster, then it will be time for road safety organisations to revise their opinions on the dangers of speed.

I think it is probably polite just to ignore Mr Jowett's rather ungallant assertion that I am nave and his suggestion that I am a hypocrite, I think we all want safer, quieter, stress-free communities.

Barbara Davey

Parklands,

Ilkley

Shop nonsense

SIR, - I read with amazement that the plan by Boots to put up protective shutters had been 'kicked out', to quote your report.

I was equally disappointed to read the rather silly and emotive language used by the two councillors quoted. Mrs Hawkesworth is quoted as saying this plan would lead to Ilkley 'looking like a war zone'.

What nonsense. How does it look when Boots has its windows and doors boarded up after the current regular ram raids?

Mr Greaves is quoted as saying that to allow this plan would set a precedent as 'we could get the whole of Brook Street and The Grove with solid shutters'. Again, what nonsense.

I find it ridiculous that the Rouge business on Chantry Drive is being forced to remove its shutters, which I certainly do not find offensive (at least they are nicely painted), whilst the charity shop at the top of Brook Street, set behind an enormous flowerbed that would stop the most determined of ram raiders is allowed to keep its shutters.

We are very lucky to live in such a splendid town as Ilkley which has so many amenities including a terrific range of shops large and small. We must do all we can to encourage them to stay.

It is a sad reflection of the society in which we live that shutters should even have to be considered but they are considerably preferable to having empty shops. Empty shops generally end up being boarded up.

How would that look, councillors?

John McGhee

Queen's Drive,

Ilkley.

Not for glory

SIR, - Reading Our Comment this week, I was left with the impression that you thought that my generation went to war in 1939 for the glory of it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Pre-1939, every Armistice Day the papers were full of pictures illustrating the horrors of war and there were plenty of survivors to stress the futility of it all.

Unfortunately, none of this prevailed with Adolf Hitler. When he came to power he embarked on a policy, as was illustrated in Mein Kampf, of aggression.

His first step was to re-militarise the Rhineland. That demilitarisation had been insisted on by the French since it meant that the industry of the Ruhr was vulnerable to a swift attack in the event of a resurgent Germany.

Having got away with that, he annexed Austria and then went for the Czech Sudentenland. To persuade the Czechs to concede that, our Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew to Munich and came back waving a piece of paper 'peace in our time'. The following March, 1939, Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia.

At the time of Munich the nation was evenly divided, as was the Empire, but that was the last straw and we had to accept that Hitler could only be stopped by force.

We, therefore, guaranteed inter alia Poland and said that if she were attacked we would go to her aid. By then it was too late as Hitler did not take us seriously. The rest is history.

Ernest Gardner

4 Warlbeck,

King's Road,

Ilkley.

Motoring tax

SIR;- A Labour Transport Minister has admitted that the Governmentis waging a war on the motorist and has called for drivers to be taxed off the road.

Kim Howells said in recent media interviews that the best way to get people to use public transport 'probably is to try to tax people out of their cars in the same way as the authorities have tried to tax people off cigarettes'.

He hinted at further rises in fuel duty, saying: "I don't think fuel is particularly expensive in Britain and if you listen to the environmental lobby it's cheaper than it should be".

The fact is that fuel prices in the UK are the second highest in Europe, with drivers paying around 80p for a litre of unleaded. Threequarters of this goes to the Government in tax.

The RAC estimates that the average annual cost of running a car rose to £5,335 last year - 25 per cent of average income. Motorists already pay £42 billion in taxes to the Treasury each year.

John Prescott stated in 1997 that he would have failed as Transport Secretary if he hadn't reduced the number of journeys by car. The number of journeys has in fact increased by seven per cent since 1997.

The Minister's comments show the extent to which the Government is waging war on the motorist. The increases in fuel duty introduced by Labour led directly to the protests of September 2000, but they still haven't learnt their lesson.

British motorists are being hit hard by Labour's stealth taxes, but public transport is not improving. The car is at the heart of our transport system and needs a Government that supports it rather than persecutes it.

There is no point being anti-car: we should all be pro-travel. Conservatives would be the intelligent friend of the motorist, instead of persecuting them with more and more stealth taxes.

Robert Collinson

Conservative

Parliamentary Candidate

for Keighley

Race issue

SIR, - In light of recent coverage on racism, immigration and related matters in the media and elsewhere, I thought it important to make your readers aware of the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly's position on the issue.

The Assembly, which represents the region's 22 local authorities, along with social, economic and environmental partners, has endorsed a request from our faith communities representatives to condemn all forms of racism.

Sajda Shah, from the Black, Minority and Ethic communities sector and Hilary Willmer, from the Churches Regional Commission, both spoke passionately at our recent meeting about celebrating our region's culture and diversity and the threat of those trying to divide our communities.

As the voice of the region, Assembly members were delighted to unanimously support the statement, particularly in light of the forthcoming elections at local and European level.

One of the driving forces behind Advancing Together, the region's strategic framework, is the need to provide a first class quality of life for everyone and be intolerant of discrimination.

That need extends to everyone living in Yorkshire and Humber and we must ensure the region continues to work together to tackle discrimination and challenge those who would seek to undermine those efforts.

Peter Box

Chairman,

Yorkshire and Humber

Assembly.

King Street,

Wakefield.

Mast decision

SIR, - I was surprised to read your story, "Councillors sidestep policy and sanction phone mast" in which Councillor Brand appears to justify the parish councillors' decision on the grounds that 'it is not going to be near a school or a residential area' and 'it is not going to be

a visual intrusion'.

I would like to point out that although there are industrial buildings near the site, there are also residential buildings less than 100 yards away. The 15 metre high mast (i.e. approximately 49 feet) would be easily visible from houses in North Parade, East Parade and Little Lane.

Whether its emissions will be a health hazard is not yet known and, rather than erring on the side of caution, it seems that our councillors are content for residents and workers in the area to be guinea pigs.

They even gave their approval to the construction of the antenna and transmission dish before the deadline for comments from the public had been reached (May 20).

Is this how we want our councillors to represent us?

LOCAL RESIDENT

Ilkley.

(Full address supplied)

D-Day thought

SIR, - Very soon the 60th anniversary of D-Day will be upon us. Once again we will be able to honour that wonderful generation of men and women who swept ashore on the Normandy beaches and opened up the Second Front against Hitler's Germany.

However, perhaps we can spare a thought for their Soviet comrades who were performing equally epic feats on the Eastern front.

In July 1943 at Kursk in the Ukraine took place the greatest clash of armoured forces in history. It was the decisive land battle of the Second World War and saw armoured and aerial clashes on a ferocious scale.

The Germans gave way and never recovered from this battering. With the collapse of communism it has become fashionable to forget the role of the Soviet Union. But it was the Red Army who, in Winston Churchills words 'tore the guts out of the German war machine''.

John Hodgson

48 Capel Avenue,

Peacehaven,

E Sussex.

Town Crier

SIR, - I was interested to read the report of the Ilkley Carnival Parade in your paper.

What puzzled me was why it said the parade was led by 'a town crier', not The Town Crier or, even better, The Ilkley Town Crier.

Chris Richards

Ilkley Town Crier

FOOTNOTE: You are quite right - we did not give the post the recognition it deserved. Many apologies, Mr Richards. - EDITOR.