Your letters to the editor

IN RESPONSE to the shortage of school places at Ilkley Grammar School, I have been asking the Labour controlled council in Bradford to be proactive and to plan for current and future demand in our area.

At the Council meeting on July 15 I asked a question. I said that David Laws, the Minister of State for Schools, had secured £7.5 billion basic need funding for 2015/16 which will enable 500,000 extra school places to be provided. I asked what action Bradford Council is taking to secure money from that fund to create more secondary school places for children in Wharfedale given that Ilkley Grammar School is continually over subscribed.

The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services’ response was that the Council aims to work closely with all schools in the district and is currently reviewing secondary school provision in the Wharfe Valley and is exploring with the Schools and Education funding agency issues around the demand for school places at the school.

I was pleased to hear that and I shall be asking for updates on progress, however, as I have said previously, I am of the view that we need a new school, especially as 350 children from the district attend Guiseley School, and my concern that new building developments earmarked in the valley will exacerbate the situation.

Coun Jackie Whiteley

Conservative Councillor Wharfedale Ward

Cuckoos galore

IF DENIS O’Connor (Nature Notes, July 10) wanted to hear cuckoos, she would have done well to walk on Ilkley Moor this year. From the last week in April to going on holiday on June 21, I was able to hear cuckoos virtually every time I walked on the moor (most days, and sometimes twice a day). Sometimes not just one, but two or three, were calling. One was seen being pursued across the moor by a few small birds, one being mobbed by blackbirds in a tree near the Darwin Gardens, and a female was perched on railings in Westwood Drive. I have not heard or seen so many for years.

John Stidworthy

Queens Drive Lane, Ilkley

Pathway to sense?

I HAVE used the footpath from Weston Lane to the Bridge End in Otley for over 60 years and have never seen it in the state that it is today.

Both sides of the path were completely overgrown throughout its length. I complained to Councillor Colin Campbell, and also at the Otley Town Council office. The latter commented that they had received several complaints, but it was a “grey area” as to who was responsible.

Half of the path was improved on July 7, but the lower section towards the bridge is still almost impassable, the corner near the old Bridge End Auction being the worst. Here anyone with a pushchair or pram has to leave the path and use the undergrowth to avoid the nettles.

I was informed by Coun Campbell recently that the first half is classed as a highway, and so Leeds have attended to it. The lower part is the responsibility of the landowners, and Leeds can only step in if it becomes impassable! Surely some common sense can be used here, for the benefit of the path users, or is that too much to expect from our local and city councils?

Tony Waye

Weston Lane, Otley

New spirit rising

IT IS hard to believe that the Ilkley Art Trail has only been with us since 2011. Each of the successive three Trails has grown and reached more people, bringing them together with the rich creative talent in our town.

Not only that, but a new dimension and area of interest has been added to the already flourishing Literature Festival. A community of organisers and helpers has come into being, each person creatively subsidising our town community by their enthusiasm, Lorna Bird and her core group being the visionaries behind all this.

I think it is wise and courageous of them to seize the opportunity, partly created by Lorna’s injury, to take stock, review their achievements so far and to create new, even more innovative ways of reaching into areas of the community, such as the young, into education and towards those who sometimes think ‘art is not for us’.

So I look forward to the next stage and I hope the Art Trail folks will take the opportunity this October whilst the Literature Festival is on, to give us a taste of their ideas for the next Art Trail in 2015.

I don’t know whether others share my observation - but I think there is a new spirit arising in Ilkley, perhaps starting with that simple but imaginative device of putting all those lights into the trees, the vision of the Outside the Box community café, the window displays of some Grove shops, the Toast House café, the wider range of Playhouse activity and the possibilities which creative uses for the Manor House and its surrounding areas may bring.

The Art Trail is already helping those who are established, perhaps next to encourage those who are emerging.

There has been Le Tour and look how well Ilkley did that! Of course there was funding, good planning, and excellent management.

For The Ilkley Art Trail we can see now what has been and achieved by those running the Art Trail, with great commitment and very limited funds, so let’s give them extra help for next year.

Bill Berrett

Hall Park, Ilkley

Road safety aims

ROAD safety is a major issue and is why I have included it in my Police and Crime Plan as a new priority this year.

Recent reports have shown that the amount of people killed on roads in West Yorkshire has gone up from 49 in 2012 to 55 last year and this trend has to stop and move downwards, of course one death alone being too many.

Cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists all have their part to play, as do local authorities, the police, charities, and other key partners such as West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

When I ask people about the issues that matter to them, road safety and traffic issues are the issues that come up the most.

Police and community safety partners have also told me it is an issue.

Inconsiderate parking, speeding, use of mobile phones, general inconsiderate driving, and driving that causes a danger to others are real problems faced by many.

That is why I have pledged to work in partnership, because while the police can prosecute some offences, others are within the jurisdiction of local councils and could be resolved through planning, the use of street furniture or the involvement of the highways authority.

There are reports most days about tragedies and accidents on our roads that in the main could be avoided and we all need to play our part in that.

To that end, I am holding events in all the districts, bringing partners together to find out what the main problems are in their area, how we can work together on resolving them with the help of communities, and making sure road safety is at the top of everyone’s list.

To highlight problems in your area, please contact me at contact@westyorkshire.pcc.pnn.gov.uk

Mark Burns Williamson

Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire

Banking for better

IT IS sad that HSBC are leaving Otley, but not surprising. This is a classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, their counter staff for a number of years have been under pressure to persuade customers to use the internet instead of the Branch. Personally I am not surprised HSBC are no longer interested in ‘ordinary’ customers, the realisation of this dawned when they threw me out of their Annual Travel Insurance on my 70th Birthday, but as I soon found out, there are perfectly good local alternatives to the HSBC.

Alec Denton

Guiseley

Scouts losing out

DIOCESE robbing Peter to Pay Paul: I welcome the Archdeacon of Bradford, the Venerable David Lee’s retraction with regard to the scouts’ stance on plans to build houses on The Green at Guiseley. It should be noted though that he refers to a “small part of the land”, this small part is in fact approximately half the land the scouts have and use. I am sure the scouts would have taken a very different stance when re-negotiating their lease had they had the full story of what the land would be used for in future.

While I understand the scouts are appreciative of the offer of the “strip of land” that has been mentioned it really is robbing Peter to pay Paul. The land taken from the scouts can only be given back by taking it from the school, this means at the end of the day it is the children of Aireborough that lose out no matter what. As I understand it there is no certainty that this strip of land will actually materialise and the scouts will then just lose land and gain new neighbours.

I have nothing against David Lee personally, but how can someone based in Shipley know or understand what the consequences of this plan will be in Guiseley? He does not have to live with the loss of land and extra traffic. It is easy to say that it is “much needed housing”, well honestly it is not, we have had more new houses built in Guiseley than you can shake a stick at.

We have heard much over the last few days about the new larger Diocese. By their own admission the Diocese have pieces of land not worth bothering with in rural areas. If it’s cash they are after why don’t they sell off these loss making assets instead of pinching one of Guiseley’s prime community resources?

Keith Park

Ings Lane, Guiseley

Ban cars from town

ON SUNDAY the Otley food festival was a wonderful demonstration of how our town centres could be if motor traffic was excluded and returned to the people, not just for one day but permanently.

A section of Boroughgate was closed to traffic creating a wonderful relaxing environment to enjoy. People and children could amble in leisure without fear of injury and delays by having to cross roads. Towns should have the same traffic free status as parks.

I have observed similar change in atmosphere in Ilkley when roads are closed and it was particularly noticeable when Le Tour was here. Cars are like a drug and it is time we learned to limit our use of them, especially in towns.

For some considerable time I have advocated the closure of Otley town centre to vehicles but it has fallen on deaf ears. However councillors I have talked to enthuse over the prospect so why is this not done? Please can we a response from them to make this possible?

Towns are for people. Not motor vehicles and if other similar towns can do it why not Otley and Ilkley?

The whole atmosphere of the two towns changes when roads are closed so why not make these closures permanent and every day.

My grateful thanks to those who made this event possible.

Malcolm Naylor

Grange View, Otley

Keep our standards

FOLLOWING the food scandals of recent years, people are becoming much more aware of what goes into our food. The last thing we need is lower legal standards, but a deal being negotiated between the EU and the US could result in exactly that.

The EU-US trade deal aims to ‘harmonise’ European and American rules in food safety and many other areas, which in practice may mean slashing European standards to match the much lower US levels. So, products like hormone-treated beef and pork, and chicken washed in chlorine, sold by US companies but currently banned here, could appear on supermarket shelves in the UK.

Food is just one area in which this deal would give multinational companies much more influence in our lives. Health care and education are among the others. The deal threatens our ability to run our society in the way we choose, and it must be stopped.

Harriet Wood

Grange Close, Ilkley

l Send your letters to the editor at george.hinton@nqyne.co.uk