A centre manager would maximise Ilkley benefits

As long as s/he had a very clear role and Ilkley residents understood what this was I think it would benefit our town in the following ways: Improve engagement with residents and maximise the benefits from voluntary input and involvement; juggle conflicting town centre matters to deliver decisive action; act as an independent spokesperson and local champion for the town; liaise and co-ordinate different Ilkley interest groups to help them achieve a common purpose together; liaise between local businesses and local government/public sector bodies; act tactically to maximise profitable tourism and trade for Ilkley; and more… I’m sure there will officially be people in place to deliver most of these goals. However, I don’t know who they are and that is my point. If we had one known key person, it makes the relevant public authorities more accessible. They can be responsible for directing our queries and input to the relevant people and I’m sure people like myself would be more likely to involve themselves in making Ilkley a better place to live, work and visit.

At the moment, I have concerns over the growing number of charity shops in Ilkley. I counted at least 10 but there’s possibly more. Although I both donate and buy from these places at times, I think there has to be a limit to their numbers as if we increase them further, Ilkley’s reputation of being a centre for high quality independent shopping could be damaged.

Are our rates so high that only a charity, which may get related exemptions, can afford them? What do charity shops do for the local job market and local wealth? Do they provide Ilkley residents with income or are the posts entirely voluntary?

I understand the altruistic benefits for us, possible work experience initiatives and the very real benefits for the good causes helped. But someone like a town centre manager could review the situation properly and ensure developments are both sustainable and in the longer term, wider interests of our town. Finally, until we get a town centre manager, please can the relevant person in charge of traffic planning, consider a pedestrian crossing across Railway Road next to Dorothy Perkins? It’s an obvious need.

Sally Kennedy, Bolling Road, Ilkley

Haworth Court closure is destroying a community

I am sure I speak for many Yeadoners who, like me, are horrified at Leeds City Council’s decision to close down Haworth Court. The council is effectively destroying a community of vulnerable people, most of whom were born and bred in Yeadon.

The advantage of Haworth Court is that the old people can look after each other and organise themselves with an entertainments committee, and so there are lots of activities to enrich the day-to-day lives of our senior citizens.

Leeds City Council will destroy all this and rehouse the inhabitants anywhere within Leeds. People that have lived all their lives in Yeadon could find themselves isolated in a strange area and easy prey for the criminal element of our society.

The council is offering a nominal disturbance allowance, but I suspect this will not sweeten the tastes of the residents.

It saddens me as a man brought up in Yeadon that we are now a suburb of Leeds with a Council that cares little for local identity and tradition.

Of course it was inevitable with the demise of the textile industry that the mills would close and, to add insult to injury, Aireborough Urban District Council was dissolved.

Yeadon was a mill town, the people of Yeadon worked in Yeadon. The Dam was not Yeadon Tarn, and the town hall was a symbol of civic pride, hard to find in the rest of Yorkshire. When Leeds City Council took over they even considered closing this iconic building.

Why did Leeds Council spend a lot of money on new radiators,windows etc for Haworth Court recently when they knew it was to close? A waste of ratepayers’ money.

For the readers of this rant who are not from Yeadon please forgive me – we should look forward and not back.

But Yeadon has a great tradition for caring for its senior citizens and Leeds City Council need to be aware of this and respect it.

Graham Wild, Yeadon

Grandiose scheme when area’s roads are appalling

When I read of the extravagant self-indulgence of spending £50 billion on HS2 (high speed rail between London and Leeds) and then experience the appalling local transport and road surfaces I despair.

Instead of improving basic and fundamental services, the government embarks on grandiose schemes to further their reputation and put money in the pockets of capitalists.

Why do we tolerate a sham democracy that ignores the ordinary public and showers luxury on the privileged?

Recently I had to wait more than 40 minutes for a 33A bus from Guiseley to Otley and when it finally arrived there was not one bus but two in tandem.

Also, as a cyclist, I daily ride between my home and Otley, a distance of less than a mile. In this distance there are a multitude of holes, damaged, sunken and ridged road surfaces.

At our MP’s initiation I have reported these with a list that could fill a page. And although I have reported some of these before nothing is done.

This government and opposition’s lip service to green issues is just that. We are advised to use cars less, cycle (it’s good for your health) or use public transport to reduce pollution, save energy and reduce congestion. What a joke.

The holes, etc, I have reported may be negotiated by cars that if unlucky might break their springs. But if a cyclist hits one when they become filled with ice we break our necks. But we are only plebs and don’t matter.

This government’s policy on public services can be summed up with the old adage – all fur coats and no knickers.

Malcolm Naylor, Otley

Whatever the pressures, care quality must not suffer

There has been a lot said in the press lately about the 15-minute care visit.

As you will know, local authorities are under tremendous financial pressure at the moment, and this is bound to have an effect on the number and range of services they can provide.

However, my own view is that, whatever the pressures, the quality of care that older people receive should not suffer.

Whatever the virtues or ills of a ‘15 minute care visit’, it seems clear that the deciding factor should not be money.

If there are some tasks that can be carried out in that amount of time, then all well and good. But carers should not be forced to curtail their visits due to financial considerations.

My other concern is about the nature of the care visits themselves. We are in danger of creating a culture where care is simply something to be dispensed, with maximum efficiency.

Instead we should surely be aiming to create a system where people feel valued and respected when they receive care.

We must not lose sight of the small, human aspects of care that cannot be captured by reports or forms: things such as conversation and not forgetting the all important listening ear. For many older people who feel isolated in their own homes, a care visit may be the only chance they get to speak to another human being that week. We must make that time, however limited, count.

Councillor Graham Latty, Shadow Spokesman for Health and Adult Social Care

Use these bus services – or prepare to lose them

‘Don’t want to lose it – so use it’ is a common mantra, especially these days And when it comes to buses, it’s so true. The latest threat to links with Ilkley is the 963 bus between Ilkley and Bradford.

First they cut out the Sunday bus, then the hourly bus, and now it’s down to two per evening – and they’re threatening to do away with it all together from January.

It seems they’ve hit on a way to ‘prove’ people don’t use it – make it too inconvenient. The last bus from Bradford now is 9.25pm. Maybe they think we don’t like to go out at night any more!

I’m a pensioner, and not having a car, I am totally dependent on public transport and so love my bus pass.

I regularly use this route –for meetings in Bradford, Shipley or Bingley, or visiting friends and family, including my 90-year-old mum who’s in a nursing home in Shipley, where I often do my supermarket shopping. And I much prefer to come home by bus than train, which involves a trudge down from Burley station, not welcomed in these dark, wintry nights.

And to rub salt in the wound, I hear the 74 link with Grassington is also to be cut.

I thought these days, transport authorities would have the sense to encourage the public to use buses, and so cut back on car travel.

Not everyone has a car anyway, and even those who do welcome the opportunity to let someone else take the strain and not have to worry about parking.

I urge all who care about public transport, now and in the future, to protest to Metro and TLC, sign petitions and send letters to the relevant authorities. We need our buses – more not less...and at appropriate times!

Lynne Faulkes, Wharfe Court, Burley-in-Wharfedale