Stagnation is not a council option

The parish council and its constitutional working group are merely showing that they are adult enough to self analyse and if required, take measures that they see as positive for the future well being of the Parish and it's residents.

The current parish council members are doing their best to ensure that the quality of life in this area is at the very least maintained.

Although absolutely no payment is received or advantage gained, at election time places on the parish council are well fought for. This is because people care about our community and wish to see it well served.

With good intent, questions are being asked. If all is well, issues are correctly and efficiently actioned. Then so be it - if not, this appraisal should help the parish council to react accordingly for the benefit of us all.

As clearly stated at the last full parish council meeting on January 8, full debates will take place before, if at all, any recommendations are actioned.

Michael P Gibbons

Chairman-Elect,

Ilkley Parish Council.

No objection

SIR, - Regarding your editorial comment of January 11, I am not aware of any proof or tangible evidence that the vandal who recently carried out damage in the toilet block at Riverside Gardens was crusading against any improper use of these facilities.

You stated that 'these toilets have in the past been used for casual liaisons in the dark by homosexual men'. If this were the case, it is a serious but separate matter to be dealt with in the correct way.

To again quote you: 'The outraged vandal wants to prevent this activity'. The vandalism to this block has deprived locals and visitors of a very needed facility, one that we may not regain. We should be very careful not to justify such cavalier and costly actions by individuals.

As for the suggestion that the parish council has shied away from this issue, nothing could be further from the truth. A tremendous amount of time and effort has been given in council to the improvement of the town's public toilets, recently helping to being about the new unit in the central car park.

We shall continue to fight to improve all the area's public toilets. Please let's not justify or find and excuse when vandals wreck them to all our cost.

Coun PAULINE DIXON

Ilkley Parish Council.

Speeding facts

SIR, - As one of the 'other residents' in Westwood Rise concerned about speeding motorists in Ilkley, I welcome the coverage given to this very worrying issue ('Speeding motorists anger residents', Ilkley Gazette, January 11).

As well as Mr Callender's remarks, I was struck by the number of other reports on the same subject this week - particularly the story on the front page citing speed as a factor in a fatal accident.

Speeding, like drink driving, kills and maims. It not only devastates the lives of victims and their families but the lives of the drivers and their families as well. All for lack of thought or to save a few moments of journey time.

It's true that in modern cars it's easy to speed without knowing it. I drive a car with a powerful, high specification engine and know that it takes constant vigilance, plus use of lower gears and the brake, not to let my speed creep up above 30mph in town.

But the fact that not speeding takes concentration is no excuse. Isn't concentrating 100 per cent of the time exactly what we should be doing when driving?

I sincerely hope that the day will come when speeding becomes as anti-social as drinking and driving and our children and pets can play in safety. Until then there can't be too much written about it as far as I am concerned.

Should the Gazette be looking for a New Year campaign, it could do worse than take up cudgels on this subject.

By the way, I hope that the long-suffering residents of Burley Woodhead soon receive the help that is overdue to them ('Traffic calming request', Ilkley Gazette, January 11).

Mrs HEATHER PARRY

17 Westwood Rise,

Ilkley.

Rotary record

SIR, - I was very glad to read your review of the last year and to see the various messages for the year to come. These remind me how much we in Ilkley have to be grateful for and how privileged we are to be able to work together as a community to help meet the needs of others.

As the President of the Rotary Club of Ilkley, I am fully aware of the activities undertaken by my fellow Rotarians to do what we can to make our town one of the best places to live in out of all that Yorkshire has to offer. Even in a place so well provided, there are still opportunities to help meet the needs of others.

Much of what Rotary does is not headline material. It is low-key and ongoing. For example, we arrange shopping trips and outings for the elderly. We support the development of our younger people through advising on job applications and interviews and through sponsorship on youth leadership courses.

We contribute to the costs of local children and teenagers experiencing service in distant countries. We make grants and donations in support of the work of other charitable groups and individuals serving the wider interests of the community.

Rotarians are involved in collecting basic materials, clothing and food for the needy within our society and also for collecting on behalf of impoverished countries overseas.

However, other projects taken forward by Rotarians are by their very nature much more in the public eye. Heartstart, which provides training in life support techniques for the public, has trained more than 300 volunteers since it was started just over two years ago.

We know of at least three occasions when volunteers have put this training to good and effective use.

In the last 12 months, nearly £8,000 has been raised for three defibrillators for use within our community. This is a tremendous achievement in a very short time. Much more though can, and will be done, to maintain Ilkley at the forefront of enabling this community to serve its residents and visitors and to help other communities set up similar schemes.

Also very much in the public eye is the work being done to preserve from commercial exploitation the site on The Grove and opposite Betty's Tearooms. In the coming year,

Rotary will deliver a Victorian-style bandstand in landscaped gardens to the trustees, who will oversee the management of this new facility on behalf of the people of Ilkley.

In taking stock of what the Rotary Club of Ilkley has done and will continue to do on behalf of the people of Ilkley, I know that my fellow Rotarians will continue their work for the community.

However, even more so am I aware of the enormous support we receive from the people of Ilkley. We are the conduits for their generosity.

Without them we would not be able to support good causes to the extent that we do. Without them we would not be able to support good causes to the extent that we do. Without them there would be no computers for Romania. No buffaloes would have been sent to support poor families in Pokhara. Heartstart training would not have been established for Ilkley and Wharfedale. The schools would have been deprived of the support we can give in developing pupils for life.

The elderly, without the support of their families, would not receive outings with their peers nor have the assistance with Christmas shopping.

There would be no help to repair the sight and limbs of third world countries that look towards Western Countries to succour their needs. Aqua boxes would not be filled for countries that are so destitute that something as significant as a ball of string is accepted as a great present.

Nor would there be a Victorian bandstand that will be our legacy for the Ilkley generations to come.

For this support and for enabling Rotary to be active in the service of others, I am extremely grateful. I very much hope that we will continue to have the support and goodwill of the community and friends of Ilkley.

On behalf of the Rotary Club of Ilkley I wish them all a happy and prosperous and healthy new year.

Simon Thornton

29 The Grove,

Ilkley.

Those lights ....

SIR, - I am astonished at the tone of Mr Raynor's letter. (January 4) Drugs may palliate the effects of epilepsy, but flickering lights of a certain frequency will still set it off.

If television companies are now obliged to give fair warning of flickering light, then civic authorities must also take care. Unlike Blackpool, Ilkley's lights are not at a height where trams and double decker buses can drive under them, nor are they in an area of town solely inhabited by drunks after lighting up time.

Were Mr Irwin to suffer a grand mal seizure in the Grove, he would be quite justified in suing those responsible, who would no doubt be advised by their brief to settle as quickly and quietly as possible.

I am glad that Mr Raynor admits to ignorance and lack of sympathy. I remember all too vividly throwing earth on the coffin of a friend, wondering if he would still be alive if just one passer-by had taken the trouble to learn a few basic facts about epilepsy.

However, I share with your correspondent a total bewilderment at the decision to simply switch the lights off. Was it really beyond the wit of anybody in authority to simply wire out the offending unit? The angels in question would have been quite adequately decorative with all their lights permanently on, and the effort involved trivial.

Ali Scott

15, St Augustine's Terrace,

Bradford.

Date pointer

SIR, - I was interested to see the photograph reproduced in the Ilkley gazette of January 4, which shows a view of the top of Wells Road.

There is a clear gap shown between the large building in the upper right section of the photograph (which is now Hillside) and the tall terrace of houses shown on Crossbeck Road.

This means that the picture must pre-date 1869 as our house, 6 Crossbeck Road, one of a pair of Victorian semis built by Marshall Hainsworth, was constructed between Hillside and the terrace in that year (according to the date stone above the doorways).

Thus the statement that the picture was taken some time in the 1870s' must be incorrect.

GEOFFREY LAMPERT

Crossbeck Road,

Ilkley.

Brian Lynch, former Gazette editor, who compiles the Across the Years section, writes: " It would appear that I could have been two years out with my calculations on a picture more than 130 years old and which did not show any date. I stand corrected."