It must not be a ‘Grand Depart’ for Ilkley Manor House Museum

As the cyclists ride along Church Street on July 5 how sad it will be if the cheering of the assembled crowds is reverberating against an empty Manor House!

This is especially poignant when you realise that the Manor House was officially opened on July 8, 1961,by Percy Dalton, who gave the building to the people of Ilkley , as represented by Ilkley UDC, for use as a Museum and Art Gallery.

Even if a viable plan for Community Management is accepted there is no guarantee that it would be awarded an acceptable Museum Accreditation. This would mean that its future becomes doubtful; Bradford Museums will only lend exhibits to other accredited museums and the present displays and collections could be removed by them. Consequently the Roman artefacts from the fort and the surrounding area on permanent display inside the Manor House, together with prehistoric artefacts and information about the development of Ilkley as a Victorian spa town, could be taken from us.

I would urge everyone to go to: bradford.gov.uk/surveys/2014-2016Budget/budget_consultation_2014_2016.htm to voice your displeasure and inform Bradford MDC that ‘The Manor House should stay with Bradford Museums and Galleries with some paid staff augmented by a pool of volunteers’.

David Bartlett, Ilkley

Still not being honest on closure of police station

In reply to the all-too-predictable letter from Labour activist Penny Mares (December 12), first of all I have not at any stage criticised the working party. They have a big challenge in coming forward with a workable plan for the Civic Centre and I wish them well in this. What is disappointing however is that despite knowing that I support the refurbishment of the civic centre, the Labour town councillors have never invited me to meet the working party nor have they provided me with any information of any proposals related to the civic centre.

The problem here is that the working party have been given an even harder task due to the decision taken by the Otley Labour councillors to sign a ten½-year lease on a shop, costing over £400,000 over ten years. This is money that should be spent on the civic centre, to give it a better chance of being brought back into use. It is simply extraordinary that the Labour councillors say they are committed to the civic centre, yet still refuse to commit to the idea of the Town Council returning to it and being based there.

So it is clear that the Labour councillors had been hoping to fill this gap of their own takings through rent from the police, with the very high price of that idea meaning the loss of Otley Police Station. It is a price that local people would not be prepared to pay – yet Labour Otley Town Council leader John Eveleigh was hoping that the police would indeed do this – he was quoted in the press saying so!

I am sure that most people in Otley do not agree with him – and indeed people I have spoken to are outraged that he and his colleagues were hoping this would happen – and that they were keeping the proposal secret from people in the town.

The Labour town councillors – and it seems now Ms Mares – are still not being honest about the reality of the proposal to close Otley Police Station and replace it with a Neighbourhood Policing Team office in the civic centre. It is clear from what Leeds City Council officers have said that this proposal was still very much on the table right until a few weeks ago, when the story became public.

I did indeed say previously, including to this newspaper, that I believed that the proposal to close Otley Police Station and set up an office in the civic centre should be in the public domain. I was only able to ensure it was public once West Yorkshire Police had replied to my letter. People should have been told earlier and it was quite wrong for change to public services on this level – the loss of the town’s police station – to be withheld from people.

So the fact is that it was my intervention that led to West Yorkshire Police announcing that they would no longer be pursing this – which is welcome news.

So as Otley’s MP I was indeed right to tell people about this proposal.

I wish the working party every success in their difficult challenge and I would be delighted to meet them, if invited to do so. However the plans must not include things, such as the police station proposal, that would damage public services in the town. I still remain very strongly of the opinion that Otley Town Council must be the first occupiers of a refurbished civic centre – housing their staff there – and giving up the shop once the refurbishment is complete.

Greg Mulholland, MP (Leeds North West)

iPad form ‘did amount to emotional blackmail’

We are two of the many parents who this newspaper’s headlines rightly point out feel pressured into agreeing to funding iPads at Prince Henry’s School in Otley. We initially had great reservations in both the cost and educational value of the initiative.

We signed up as we felt it was a done deal and the letter gave us two choices (or a dilemma); one was to sign up, the other, as I remember, not signing up, but with a footnote against that box saying that if we chose not to take part our child would not have the same opportunity as those that had.

Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the form so am not entirely sure of the exact wording. But it did amount to emotional blackmail, in my opinion. Having spoken to several friends who are teachers they do not feel that the benefits claimed by the school can be substantiated.

I have also spoken to work colleagues who have children at Harrogate Grammar and have reservations about their educational value and spoken of the iPad usage being abused in class by being used to communicate with friends during teaching time.

I would be very interested in seeing the school’s financial calculations in their own business plan.

Paul Kirk, Otley

Help me with information on the wars’ servicemen

Services of remembrance for those who served in the two world wars will mean more to later generations if they are not just names on a page.

As part of my project to provide a record of servicemen from the Washburn Valley who served in the two world wars, I would be interested to hear from anyone with information on those from Stainburn, Farnley, Leathley, Fewston, Norwood, Blubberhouses, Timble and Snowden, whose names appear on the Roll of Honour in Fewston Church.

So far I have no information on any of the following: W Beecroft (Roy Eng); T Racewell (RAF); GW Grange (Roy Garrison Artill); TH Graves (RNAS); W Hamper (RAF); F Hardwick (20th Hussars); F Keighley (Roy Field Artill); F Lorrimer (Roy Garrison Artill); Henry Maber (Roy Artill); A Maud (Duke of Wellington’s); H Ploughman (Duke of Wellingtons); G Russell (Roy Garrison Artill).

Many families left the valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in search of work in the nearby towns, and their descendants may well live in Bradford or Leeds. I would like to appeal to any of your readers who may have these, or other family connections with the Washburn Valley, to contact me.

Diana Parsons, Rupert Road, Ilkley, m.parsons@doctors.org.uk

Your dogs are fouling our streets and ruining village

I write to appeal on behalf of all the non-dog owners and the responsible dog owners in Burley-in-Wharfedale to the people out there who are allowing their dogs to foul our streets and ruin our village. If you take a stroll round Burley it’s an absolutely disgusting sight, particularly first thing on a morning before children have had chance to stand in it and flatten it to the ground.

Those people who perhaps walk ahead of the dog and are oblivious or just can’t be bothered to clean up after themselves need to be dealt with – it’s an utter disgrace.

The Tour de France comes to our village this year and, with it, thousands of visitors. We don’t want our village remembered for all the wrong reasons – have some respect for your surroundings.

Mr G Robins, Burley-in-Wharfedale