Fairness has gone out the window

I enter the car park and buy a ticket for one hour. This entitles me one parking space for one hour.

Straightforward so far. The council gets 70p (or whatever sum is involved) for the "rent" of one car space for one hour.

I leave the space after 20 minutes as my business in town is done and pass my ticket to another motorist who drives into another space. My space is now free as I have gone. The council has lost nothing as very soon another car will occupy the space I have just vacated and pay another 70p.

The motorist who has my old ticket has only 40 minutes left then he will have to go or pay another fee. Still the council has lost nothing.

There is only one possible reason that I can see for the necessity of adding a registration number to the ticket so that it cannot be passed on and that is simply to screw even more money out of the motorist.

There can be no other feasible reason, so for pity's sake why won't the council admit it? I would be very interested to read of an explanation if there is one - but I shall be looking carefully for "weasel words".

When are they due their next wage rise? Is this new system being introduced to fund it? (Wry smile appears on the faces of your several of your readers).

T Hall,

Haw Park, Embsay.

SIR - I would just like to thank the people of Gargrave and Hetton who kept a look out for Billy the missing red Burmese cat during the last month.

Billy came for his holidays to stay with a friend in Gargrave whilst we were away.

He managed to escape from an open window and went on his own 'adventure' holiday for four weeks. People responded magnificently to the poster campaign asking for information and my friend Caroline West had many helpful phone calls about sightings of the cream coloured cat.

Billy was eventually tracked down to Ray Bridge Lane, where we managed to find him safe and well, but living rough in the wood behind the farm.

A very happy ending and my grateful thanks to those who read the posters and responded.

Sheila Sharpe,

Farfield House, Hetton.

SIR - Last week I received a letter from the North Yorkshire Family Health Service, the upshot of which was to tell me that the North Yorkshire Patient Care Trust would no longer be providing NHS dental appointment cards. The idea is that the dentist puts his hand in his back pocket and subsidises the North Yorkshire PCTs' dental stationery (ie pays for the printer to provide the cards).

When I spoke with the FHS, the reasons given for doing this were that some other PCTs were also not providing appointment cards and they wanted to save money.

At a time when NHS dentists have become something of an endangered species, I was puzzled why it was reasoned a bit less help was a good thing for dentists, when in fact a bit more help might have been seen as sensible.

I would like to suggest that patients at Gargrave Dental Surgery bring their diaries with them for future appointments.

I daresay the North Yorkshire FHS would be able to give a full explanation for this decision.

David Jackson,

Dental Surgeon,

East Street, Gargrave.

SIR - I noticed that just before the results of this year's A-levels were published, the usual statements were made of how A-levels are getting easier - this before the results are out!

It is unfair and unkind to the students to say this type of thing as A-levels are not easy and require a lot of hard work and talent. It is due to the ability of the students and the work they put in that they pass these exams.

People who tell us how easy they are should be challenged to tell us how easy it was. This undermining of students has got to stop and let credit be given where it is rightly due.

J Canaway

Giggleswick.

SIR - We thank you for the recent article (Craven Herald August 26) mentioning Skipton Chamber of Trade's support for alternative suggestions put forward by Sebastian Fattorini. Perhaps you could spare us a few more column inches to make the following points?

Numerous chamber members have submitted their views to us on the matter, some lengthy, some short and to the point. The overall synopsis raises three major points which are;

1) Given the proposals are a major upheaval for the town, the overall gain in parking spaces is just a joke.

2) To concentrate all long term parking on Cavendish Street would lead to total congestion, not only of that area but the High Street. Couple this with the only access to the High Street car park being from Otley Street/Road end and most traffic having to approach via Newmarket Street, total gridlock is guaranteed.

3) The amount of additional retail space proposed is a figure from cloud cuckoo land, the consequences of which do not bear thinking about.

Many other factors have been raised but the above facts alone should tell the council to stop wasting our money paying idiots to see what crazy thoughts they can come up with next!

No-one has been given much time to respond to the proposals shown at the second consultation. What is the hurry all of a sudden? It is disgraceful that some residents did not get their newsletter until days before the closing date for response. As for the ambiguity of the questions, the answers are directed towards the council getting their own way.

Given this very short response time the chamber has listened to what seems a practical solution, if it is possible, and it has our support. However, we are not town planners and as such must ask the council to fully research any other proposals put their way. Let there be meetings with residents and businesses rather than behind closed doors with councillors and the Grimleys of this world.

A further exhibition is to be staged at the Town Hall on Thursday September 8 and we urge all interested parties, residents and businesses, to come and see what possible alternatives there could be.

Bob Wright

President,

Skipton Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

SIR - Your rather waspish comments on the adverse report on the working of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority's planning committee was, I feel, a little unkind to the elected members.

Of course it is true that some members (and those who have followed the press accounts of meetings know who they are) will always champion their constituents' claims and the rest of of the authority must take account of this - as I am sure they do.

But they do have in their favour something which is not given to those nominated by the minister, nor to officers nor newspaper editors - they are elected by their constituents and would by now have been removed if they had not represented them.

So the suggestion that they should support the officers in a higher percentage of cases is not right - each case must be assessed on its own merits. Moreover, there may well be instances where the officers are wrong even within their own terms. I know of one case myself where that was the case.

What we are really witnessing is the result of the inevitable tension which is bound to exist within a body which is constantly trying to reconcile the economic needs of the people living and working there with the national demand for the whole nation to be able to benefit from a national resource.

Of course, many of the points made by the report are valid - it was always foolish for the planning committee to consist of all the members - meaning that they report back to themselves.

And the statements made by claimants should be tested, which would mean additional staff, I assume.

But don't overdo the criticism. From my distant point, their good far outweighs the bad.

Frank Pedley,

Wood Close, Hellifield.

SIR - Jeffery Woodhouse may well have a point about the British attitude to the nude human body (Craven Herald letters August 26) but I think we would all like a degree of choice about when and where we are able to look at one another naked.

As Noel Coward nearly put it - If I want to see people naked I will go to a Turkish bath not Skipton canalside.

Graeme Hitchen

High Bank, Bradley.

SIR - A few weeks ago you reported in the Craven Herald on the open air public gathering in the Regents estate with regard to proposals for traffic management.

At that time I undertook to inform concerned residents when the matter would be debated and probably decided by North Yorkshire County Council's area committee.

This will take place at 10am on Thursday September 8 at the Town Hall Grassington.

Also, I have had placed on the agenda for the day the pedestrian and highway safety of Shortbank Road in Skipton and firm proposals for an initial residents priority parking scheme for some central Skipton residential areas.

Members of the public are welcome to attend and contribute as appropriate.

Coun Robert Heseltine,

Ginnel Place, Skipton.

SIR - It was a good letter last week from a Twickenham visitor about litter in Settle and Giggleswick.

What would qualify Settle and Giggleswick as "litter capital of Yorkshire" is their spokes of off street vegetation walkways which don't have convenient litter bins, thus forcing the prolific walkers to be litter kids and louts.

Presumably the local councils blame the contractors, who in turn blame the councils, who depend on the louts and kids dumping the rubbish noticeably for their job salaries.

Robert Leakey,

Sutcliffe House, Giggleswick.

SIR - The annual Roger Wilman Golf Tournament was held at Skipton Golf Club recently.

First was Mark Singleton, second Bryan Preston and third Jeff Eggleston. The evening event was held at the Royal Shepherd raising £2,533 for CancerBacup.

In May a new website was launched on information for teenagers with cancer (click4tic.org.uk).

I received an invitation on behalf of our supporters to attend a reception at St James's Palace, London, celebrating Bacup's 21st birthday and was requested to extend to you all their heartfelt thanks for the continued support and generosity over the last six years in memory of Roger.

Sue Wilman,

Gargrave.

SIR - Yes, this is yet another Renaissance letter, but before you dismiss it as old news please read on.

This is not a letter setting out the arguments as to why the Renaissance is wrong for Skipton in its present format, that has been done already by others and far more eloquently.

It is a direct appeal to all the residents of Skipton to really think what all these developments will do to the town we love.

I am a Skiptonian born and bred and have lived here practically all my life, coming back to settle here after a brief spell away with my husband, who served in the RAF.

I can remember the town as it used to be, a small sleepy market town, where locals shopped in the High Street, buying from the market and the myriad of small local shops which catered for every need.

We didn't even have a supermarket; we didn't need one.

But things change and we were suddenly saddled with eyesores such as 9 High Street. Can you imagine knocking down a row of Georgian cottages to build that?, but that's what the planners of the day did in the name of progress.

More recently the planners in their wisdom have allowed shop fronts in the High Street to be desecrated by faceless nationals and charity shops - the old Branded Lines shop a fine example (now the British Heart Foundation), and even allowed shops to be painted pink!

Is this what we really want for what is billed on the entrance signs as a "historic market town"? I think not. Towns grow and change but please let's make the changes sympathetic to the character and history.

Other towns and cities manage it, why can't we?

By now some of you will have completed and returned the survey sent out by Craven District Council and maybe it will be a resounding vote in favour, but before these plans are set in motion there is still another chance to make your views known.

After the Bank Holiday every house in Skipton will receive a ballot paper, formulated by the Civic Society and with the backing of the Electoral Reform Service, which asks one simple question - are you in favour of the present proposals as they stand, or against (a question which the council failed to ask) because remember we cannot pick and choose, they come as a package.

So I am appealing to all Skiptonians like me who feel passionately about their town and to all those who have made Skipton their home, you must like it as it is otherwise you wouldn't have come to live here. Please complete the ballot paper and send it back and force the council to go back to the drawing board. It is time for the residents of Skipton to stand up and be counted.

Beryl Binns,

Brook Street, Skipton.

SIR - The Civic Society ballot paper has just arrived in the post. Wow! What a breath of fresh air...non-political, independent, a crystal-clear summary, courageous and the first time residents have been allowed a yes or no vote.

Surely Craven District Council must now reimburse ballot costs to the civic society from the Renaissance pot.

My ballot paper is already winging its way back to London.

Mark Kenyon,

Keighley Road, Skipton.