Ignorant businessmen are blamed

Sir, - I have read with interest the continued problem of overcrowding on the Leeds to Ilkley trains, and, being a regular user of the rush-hour trains, I have found a simple solution to the problem.

The answer is quite simple. If people took up one seat instead of spreading their briefcases, coats, bags and newspapers on adjacent seats then the problem would greatly be reduced.

The main offenders seem to be middle-aged business men who think they have a divine right to get on the train at Ilkley and spread their belongings out whilst reading a broadsheet newspaper- thus taking up even more space.

If they want such privacy might I suggest them taking their cars to work! Having lived and worked in major cities in Britain and Europe I have never experienced such a problem which appears to me to be due to gross ignorance and a lack of good manners.

Indeed, having asked such gentlemen before to kindly move their belongings so I could sit down, the response I was given was akin to that of asking them for their life savings.

Therefore I ask the good folk of Ilkley to consider their fellow passengers when using the train, as we are all in it together, and wonder if the readers of the Gazette agree with me on this?

William Gonzague

42 Beverley Rise,

Ilkley.

Statement, please

SIR, - Before the precept was forced upon us, Ilkley Parish Council served us by being a platform for expressing local concerns.

Now it is becoming an arm of City Hall, to be used in order to increase our Council Tax in Ilkley above the odds. Pressure from people employed by Bradford Council has resulted in a precept being tacked on to the normal amount of Council Tax.

We now learn that the vice-chairman of the parish council is also employed by Bradford Council. That vice-chairman is one of the people who vigorously pushed the cause of levying the precept - as witness his reported and lengthy statement in the Gazette of March 14, 2002.

So was there not a conflict of interest there?

Will Coun Gibbons, the chairman, make a public statement about that? Or will he remain silent - and make a mockery of his claim made during last October to want the public to be able to raise issues publicly?

EDWIN SCHIRN

Ilkley.

(Full address supplied).

Sly DEFRA

SIR, - When DEFRA Minister Alun Michael announced six months of consultation on the issue of hunting with hounds the Countryside Alliance made every effort to co-operate.

The Alliance has gone out of its way to persuade the rural community, despite the misgivings of many, to give him the benefit of the doubt and time to prove his commitment to a fair solution. Sadly it is now clear that the Minister is prepared to betray that trust.

His stated intention to find an honourable and fair solution appears to have been surrendered to party political expediency.

The Minister has chosen to ban deer hunting and competitive coursing out of hand, without giving the opportunity to make their case to the regulator, citing 'incontrovertible evidence' which he has never produced. Other forms of hunting are little better off and face a virtual back-door ban.

They are to be tested against a distorted definition of 'utility' which ignores hunting's social, economic and environmental benefits - to the great consternation of the shooting and angling communities who see in this a political precedent which could threaten their sports.

He is even proposing to give taxpayers' money to 'animal welfare' groups to contest hunts' licence applications whilst hunts themselves would, of course, have to foot the whole bill for the process.

The Minister has moved further and further from his pledge to base hunting legislation on 'principle' and 'evidence'. His Bill is exposed not as a fair 'middle way' but a sly and cynical attempt to halt most hunting under a cloak of political moderation.

The hunting community has made clear that it would accept fair regulation. Instead the Minister has produced a divisive, confrontational Bill which will be resisted ever more resolutely by right-minded rural people.

If made law it would never have the support of the ordinary communities who would be the only people affected and would therefore be effectively unenforceable.

John Haigh

Regional Director,

Yorkshire Countryside Alliance,

Thirsk,

North Yorkshire.

On the march

SIR, - President Bush is marching his troops up to the top of the hill, with British forces in support. It is difficult to see how he can march them down again without Saddam Hussein claiming victory, which would be unacceptable to the White House. As I write, UN weapons inspectors say they have no 'smoking gun' evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

It is a land of fear, and many of its people would welcome the overthrow of the despot, but Saddam Hussein has presented no threat to other nations since his defeat in 1991, and there is no clear evidence of links with alQaeda.

War is likely for the sole reason that George W Bush wants a regime change in Iraq to suit his own political purposes. No promises of liberty or democracy are being made.

Despicable regimes elsewhere in the world are ignored. The purpose of this conflict will be to demonstrate American power and secure the re-election of the US President at a time of economic difficulty.

The very least we must demand of Tony Blair is that British forces should not be engaged in the absence of a second United Nations resolution and a free vote of MPs in the House of Commons.

Readers might be interested to know that I am gauging people's opinion via a poll on my website on www.dianawallismep.org.uk .

DIANA WALLIS

Liberal Democrat MEP,

Yorkshire and the Humber.

Reasons for lights

SIR, - There are a number of reasons for the proposed traffic light signals at the junction of Victoria Avenue and Skipton Road in Ilkley.

They will obviously allow vehicles to turn in and out of Victoria Avenue, but perhaps more importantly, the wider effect will be to reduce the speed of traffic to the existing 30 mph limit.

Many vehicles travelling each day from Addingham to Ilkley ignore the 40 mph limit and then pass through the 30 mph limit at excessive speeds and make it very difficult for vehicles entering and leaving Appletree Gardens (which is agreed by the highways department to be a difficult access) and also Easby Road and Stourton Road.

If more vehicles were to adhere to the maximum limit of 30mph, then they could see for themselves the junctions in time to let traffic into the main flow of the A65, and also vehicles wishing to enter the A65 could have time to join the flow of traffic. The proposed signals are about enforcing traffic management because the voluntary control does not work. To limit access one way forces traffic on to other roads which, unless controlled by lights, will increase the build-up of traffic in the town to the frustration of motorists and pedestrians alike.

Lights should not be necessary at minor junctions if care and consideration of other road users were adopted, but the voluntary code does not seem to work, and even traffic signals are regularly passed when the lights are red.

A D WALLBANK

9 Kimberley Street,

Ilkley.

What is point?

SIR, - Further to Sandy Machpherson's letter last week, why build a cycle track from a main road which has no cycle lane, across a field into another road (namely, Wheatley Lane) - so narrow under the railway bridge that two cars can hardly pass and which would certainly not accommodate a cycle lane?

The same applies to Valley Drive. So please, can anyone tell what is the point?

Could it be that developers want to establish a road and lighting on the field with housing to follow?

I am very suspicious. Please register your objections, as Sandy suggested.

KAY VANN

21 Wheatley Lane,

Ilkley.

Can you recall?

SIR, - I am doing a local history project on a family called Plummer, who lived in the village of Harewood, near Liverpool, in the early part of the last century - 1903 to 1926.

The head of the family was the Rev Francis Bowes Plummer of The Rectory, Halewood. He had three sons killed in the Great War, but out of the surviving family members, two of them became doctors.

One of them, Thomas Royston Plummer, had a practice in Ilkley. Do any of your readers remember him or have any information on him?

D IRVING

31 Woodland Road,

Harewood,

Liverpool,

L26 1XE.

Valentine plea

SIR, - I am writing to encourage your readers to have a heart this valentine's Day and support the British Heart Foundation's Valentine campaign, Take Note of Your Heart.

This February the BHF is launching a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of heart health amongst women. Every year almost four times as many women die from coronary heart disease as from breast cancer, yet knowledge of the disease and awareness of the risk factors is low.

As part of this campaign, the first ever range of BHF Valentine cards is now available in all BHF shops. All profits from the handmade cards will go towards the fight against heart disease.

Buy your cards at your local BHF shop. To be connected to the nearest shop, please call 0870 1204141.

ANGELA RIPPON

Broadcaster and journalist

SIR, - An inquiry has been requested into why a few inches of snow disrupted the South-East last week, so can we have an explanation as to why one inch of snow caused chaos on the Silsden-Addingham road over Cringles this Monday?

My wife left Sutton-in-Craven early at 15.30 and took a full two hours for the 11 miles to Ben Rhydding, joining the tailback at Steeton.

There are not just one, but two, sets of semi-permanent 'temporary' traffic lights on Cringles, with the phasing set on Monday so as to create maximum disruption.

The roadworks were totally unmanned with nobody available to resolve the problem. The apparently untreated road was progressively freezing-over, exacerbating the problem. Presumably the gritters could not get through the traffic chaos created by the phasing of the lights.

When an organisation is granted the authority to dig the road and erect lights, is there not also a requirement to ensure disruption is minimised?

The weather forecast suggested this was going to be a difficult day, and yet the site was left unmanned by the contractors with nobody to adjust the phasing of the lights and get traffic moving again.

Ian Henderson

3 Wheatley Avenue,

Ben Rhydding,