Letters to the Editor

SIR - It is some weeks now since the work at Mill Ing Bridge, Bradley, commenced, and I would like to begin this letter with praise for the way in which the traffic which still uses the A629 has been filtered through the bottleneck caused by these works.

I have used this route on more than one occasion, 'to'ing and 'fro'ing between Cononley and Skipton, and although I have only used it during the middle part of the day and not during the rush hour, I have only ever been delayed by three to four-and-a-half minutes on either side at any one time.

Niceties apart, as you can see from my address, I live on Main Street, Cononley. Within the six-year period that I have lived here, I have noticed a considerable increase in the number of cars that now use the Skipton Road/Woodside Lane route, and use it without care and due consideration to village residents.

This problem becomes far worse each time traffic is redirected through our village because of hold-ups elsewhere. A number of these drivers, now made aware of this route, will continue to use it long after the roadworks have been completed, and will continue to use it as a "rat run".

The speed at which traffic travels through the village is too fast, and it might be better if the 30mph limit be reduced to 20mph under the present circumstances, and this "maximum" speed limit to be seen to be enforced by the local police force, whose presence appears to be sadly lacking.

It is extremely stressful having so much traffic travelling past your home in such close proximity. I can only liken it to what I imagine Chinese water torture to have been like.

My car is filthy as are the windows of my house. Sitting outside my south-facing cottage is out of the question for the foreseeable future and during a large part of this particular summer, and even sitting in my living room, which also fronts the Main Street, is extremely unpleasant for either reading, listening to the radio, or watching the television.

Sitting in a lay-by on a major trunk road would not be a too far-fetched simile. I find myself, more and more, living in the darker and less comfortable rear part of my house, preferring to listen to the spin cycle of my washing machine to the constant noise of passing traffic.

I hold Yorkshire Dales Radio partly responsible, for drawing attention of the driving public alternative routes through both Cononley and Bradley, apparently acting on information from the AA. I also feel they continue to be irresponsible for continuing to report the delays as "horrendous", and these comments made during the day, when, as I have already stated, the delays have been for no longer than four minutes.

To end I would just like to add that I feel North Yorkshire County Highways have shown no consideration whatsoever or taken any steps prior to this work being carried out to alleviate the considerable inconvenience and distress caused to residents in the above named villages.

I still feel it is not too late for a better and more positive and lasting alternative course of action to be taken, and I strongly suggest speed ramps be introduced along the Main Street in Cononley, and placed at intervals along the Skipton Road/Woodside Lane road.

This, I feel sure, would have a desired effect in reducing the amount of traffic using this route, obviously slowing the traffic and consequently making it far more pleasant for residents of Cononley, farmers, cyclists, walkers, and horse riders alike, all of whom pay their rates accordingly.

And while on the subject of rates, can the residents who have suffered any inconvenience during this three month period, expect a rebate?

Hilary Swinglehurst,

Main Street,

Cononley.

l This is a copy of a letter addressed to the county's divisional engineer.

Pub controversy shatters the peace

SIR - The battle to save the Dog and Partridge pub from closure seems to have become a vendetta, and has taken on the ugliness of the wild west of Gold Rush days in America than life in a peaceful hamlet.

The Dog and Partridge is inconspicuous, like Tosside, so that you seem to be past it before you know it's there, and it surprised me that it could muster as many as "40 angry residents".

In the Craven Herald report, it gave the impression that the pub dated back centuries, but it was once a temperance hotel, later a donkey sanctuary and almost derelict before becoming a public house again.

Mr Drachenberg stressed in his speech that the pub was a vital part of the community, not just somewhere to go for a drink but "where deals are done and relationships are formed". Maybe this is the root of the trouble for if people are not prepared to spend money in a pub, it is hardly likely to be a viable concern.

It would be interesting to know how much money those 40 letter writers spend in there each week. Nor is the mountain bike trail mentioned by Coun Alan Kay likely to bring in a bonanza, rather just the sale of a coke or chocolate bar in exchange for the use of the toilets.

The most ridiculous statement of all was that the pub should remain open because eight romances had begun there. I met my husband at the Winter Gardens, Morecambe, in June 1940, but it never occurred to me to protest when the place was closed down.

So if Mr Drachenberg knows so much about running a pub and wishes to be a public benefactor, then I suggest he takes it over or shuts up.

Joyce Eaglestone,

Town Head Avenue,

Settle.

Unfortunate decision

SIR - Councillor Crawford appears piqued that you did not report his pearls of wisdom in your august organ - perhaps we are not as important as we think we are.

His homily on democracy seems to overlook the fact that the decision to charge for bulky items of refuse (on the recommendation of the District Auditor) was approved by a majority. Does he mean that he accepts those decisions of which he approves but not those of which he disapproves?

The decision on the Heseltine affair was unfortunate because it resulted in, as one member of staff remarked to me, "not even a slap on the wrist". Presumably this is the message the majority wished to convey to our staff.

Coun William Bradley,

Mearbeck,

Long Preston.

Not a nonsense

SIR - If Lin Ward-Mitchell had to daily use the exit from Salt Lake Cottages near Ribblehead out on to the B6479 he would soon realise that "frightened" is not a nonsense as he suggests in his letter of May 29.

The Highways Department has erected two warning signs and painted extra SLOW markings on the road, but traffic hurtles round the blind bend. All traffic - lorries, cars and motorcycles. There has already been one death here.

The legal speed limit on B Class roads is 60mph. This is the nonsense!

Hilda Lees,

Barnstead,

Newhouses,

Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Cosmetic pretences

SIR - If all those motorcyclists are so careful and law abiding (see last week's Letters to the Editor), why were so many of them at the weekend doing 40 to 50mph on the newly painted ladders inside the newly planted cats' eyes overtaking cars in the 30mph section of Skipton Road, Gargrave?

Come to that, why is North Yorkshire County Council wasting our tax money on cosmetic pretences like painted ladders?

Michael Green,

Skipton Road,

Gargrave.

Tests condemned

SIR - World stability is again threatened as a new nuclear arms race begins. In an already volatile area, the governments of India and Pakistan are confronting each other, threatening world peace, while millions of their own people live in abject poverty.

The Grassington and District Peace Group condemns these tests as it has condemned all tests in the past. This is no way to build a prosperous, secure and just world.

On Monday, at 7.30pm, in Grassington Town Hall, the group is holding an open meeting at which the national chairman of CND, Dave Knight, will be speaking. We invite all those interested and concerned to come and hear what he has to say and to express their views on the whole nuclear issue.

Marion Sinton,

Co-chairman,

Grassington and District Peace

Group,

Peace Cottage,

Starbotton.

Lip of the abyss

SIR - Writing as one who marched on all but the first of the huge Aldermaston demonstrations back in the 50s, I can sympathise with Mr A T Smith (Letters, May 29) when he protests at the threatened "removal" of the women's peace camp at Menwith Hill.

Spies - of whatever stripe - constitute an ugly excrescence and should have no place in a civilised world. And there's the rub: as the current - deadly - spat between India and Pakistan is reminding us, we do not live in such a world.

For my part I have, through my socialist understanding, long since come to realise that deploring spies, bombs, imperialism, Saddam Hussein, Boris Yeltsin or Michael Howard (to name but a few of the horrors that haunt us) is to put the cart before the horse and is, therefore, dangerously diversionary.

Good people everywhere will always stand up to be counted. However, the only struggle worth pursuing, by that great majority of us who can have no conceivable interest in killing and maiming each other in the interests of our rulers, remains that of ridding ourselves of the root cause of the world's traumas - private and state property relations and the profit system.

Whinging only about the inevitable consequences of such a system is a sterile exercise indeed.

The road is a long and stony one, as us socialists know better than most, perhaps. The prize, however, is an enlightened self interest the world's peoples have hitherto hardly begun - or been permitted - to glimpse.

And the alternative? Seen in a historical perspective capitalism has brought us all to the lip of the abyss. Surely we are not lemmings?

Richard Cooper,

Caxton Garth,

Threshfield.

Excursion support

SIR - I have been very impressed with the support for the Green Express Railtours excursions from the Aire Valley, and would like to take this opportunity to thank those residents of the Aire Valley who have travelled with us.

Several people have expressed an interest in how the tours are organised and remember the times when an excursion train was a regular event provided for the local community.

Green Express Railtours tries to cater for the smaller local communities and attempts to recapture the mood of those days. It is not possible to serve all of the Aire Valley stations on each tour as each station stop not only affects the timing of the train, but also incurs a charge of of £26 per stop.

This charge is levied by the train operating company, covering the area where the station is located, and can significantly add to the overall cost of the operation.

I am now looking towards next year's programme and, following five charter trains to Edinburgh from the Aire Valley, would welcome suggestions for different destinations. Several people have expressed a preference for Bath, but I will give all locations equal consideration.

Nick Harvey,

Proprietor and train organiser,

Green Express Railtours,

49 Byram Arcade, Westgate,

Huddersfield.

On yer bike!

SIR - I would like to draw your readers' attention to National Bike Ride Week, June 6 to 14. In particular, Wednesday June 10 has been designated cycle to work day.

Cycling has many benefits, both for the health of the cyclist and for the environment. It is also a pleasurable leisure activity allowing for a greater appreciation of the countryside.

If anyone is interested in local cycling issues, there is now the newly established Keighley and Craven Sustrans Group to which all interested person are most welcome.

Chris Rose,

Keighley and Craven Sustrans

Group,

Hurrs Road,

Skipton.

Unite Craven

SIR - I belong to the Unite Craven Group which wishes to see West Craven reunited with the rest of historic Craven in Yorkshire.

In 1974, boundary changes were made without any consideration for local people and their loyalties. A clear majority of people both in Lancashire and Yorkshire wish to see the true Lancashire-Yorkshire borders restored.

The Local Government Commission has rectified some of the 1974 boundary changes but has totally ignored the Lancashire-Yorkshire border.

I want to see Barnoldswick and the rest of West Craven returned to Yorkshire, and into the Craven District Council area, one consideration alone being our council tax would fall by over £100 if we returned to Yorkshire!

Suppose the EEC decreed that both England and Wales were to become part of Scotland. Would the English and Welsh accept such a decree?

West Craven was pushed into Lancashire in 1974. Being allowed to put Yorkshire in one's address is not enough. Isn't it time the Local Government Commission made the right decision and restored the true Lancashire-Yorkshire border?

M M Mills,

Ghyll Meadows,

Barnoldswick.

* From our E-mail postbag come these comments about our web site from Warner Davis in Toronto: It is well laid out. My grandparents came from Skipton, and when I was there in 1990, your film reader was down. The staff let me read the actual 1896 copy showing my great grandfather's death.What a helpful staff.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.