It’s still a pay rise Sir – When is a rise not a rise?

The denial from certain members of Skipton Council that a rise in the salary of certain selected senior officers is in progress is in the language of George Orwell “newspeak”. Call it what you will, call it a restructure, call it a reorganisation, call it a reassessment, it amounts to the same thing. It is a rise in salary!

The wages bill at the council will rise by 12 per cent and this will increase the wages of senior staff members.

At time when residents are suffering cuts to services and the council is to borrow money to complete its work programme, when we are forced to pay out of our pocket to keep street lights lit because the council can’t find the money to continue this vital service, it is beyond belief that such callous disregard of the public purse should even be considered by those we elect to represent us and trust to spend our rates wisely.

When people nod their heads and say: “They are all the same, aren’t they?”, it will be even harder in Skipton to find a reason to disagree.

Joanna Todd Victoria Street Stirton Enough shop choices Sir – Do we need another supermarket in Skipton? My initial reaction was “yes” but now I’ve changed my mind.

We’ve seen Aldi, Poundland and Fultons open in or very near to Skipton and a farm shop is due to open on the outskirts.

Are people expected to travel to Skipton because Sainsbury’s is here? Residents near to Settle have a big Co-op and Booths. Those near to Keighley have Sainsbury’s, a huge Asda and Morrisons. Those near to Ilkley have Booths and Tesco. Those near to Barnoldswick or Earby have access to a huge Sainsbury’s in Colne. Folks in Silsden might soon have an Aldi and, maybe a Tesco, plus easy access to Keighley.

Is it really the case that without Sainsbury’s near Skipton, there won’t be a new business park at all? Is that the real objective and Sainsbury’s is the way to get it?

At supermarket checkouts I’ve heard people say they prefer to shop in one place – or that they have walked into one of the new outlets and walked straight out again – or they make disparaging remarks about some outlets selling only their own brands.

Have they tried them? Have they considered that they probably already prefer some items sold by one shop whilst they prefer other items from elsewhere? Have they thought that many supermarkets already sell their own branded versions of mainstream items? Poundland and Fultons sell many main-brand goods at much-reduced prices. Aldi sells a lot of its own-brand items and many of them are not only as good as main brand items, but they’re also a lot cheaper.

It’s just a case of deciding which items you like and can pay less for in one shop and those which you prefer from somewhere else. Don’t shoppers do that already, or do they mean they’d rather save a few minutes each week shopping under one roof when by making a few simple changes, they could save a lot of money? But if they have money to burn, then so be it. Just don’t moan about housekeeping not going as far as it used to.

And what happens when the new farm shop opens? Will people travel a few extra miles to go there? It seems likely (assuming that HML employees’ cars don’t fill the car park to overflowing, of course). If that proves to be the case, then a bit of extra travelling is worth it.

If the big supermarkets respond to the fact that people are switching to the likes of Aldi and Lidl on a permanent basis by hacking their prices, we surely have to ask why they didn’t do that ages ago. Maybe it’s because to do so means increasing the amount of their own-brand items they’ll need to sell, or putting an even greater squeeze on mainstream suppliers to accept less and less for their produce?

Surely, in Skipton, we already have more than enough choices about where to spend our money and get best value.

Alan Sturgess Eshton Road Gargrave It didn’t work this time Sir – The planned Wyvern Park retail and industrial park has been turned down for perfectly sound and understandable reasons.

On the principle that a single picture is worth a thousand words, perhaps now is a good moment to have another look at the classic “artist's impression” of the development which has featured in the Craven Herald.

This kind of thing is supposed to show us what the completed development would look like. Ninety per cent of this picture is given over to a deserted road, blue sky (it's always a blue sky), grass and some trees.

A lone pedestrian strolls along the pavement enjoying the sunshine. Look hard and you can just get a glimpse of distant bits of “retail park post-modern” among the greenery.

Are we any the wiser as to what the development would look like? Don't be silly. This is anyplace, anywhere. We are supposed to buy into a Utopian vision of sunlit boulevards, birdsong, manicured lawns and immaculately pruned foliage. This is the future! Your future!

Happily it didn't work this time. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time . . . you know the rest, don't you?

Frank Gordon The Mains Giggleswick It’s all about timing Sir – If the drivers of buses departing from Skipton Bus Station are instructed to rely on the Station clock, please will the person responsible for this timepiece please put it right.

Robert Hall Rock House Thornton-in-Craven A cyclist speaks out Sir – Once again we see a letter in the April 3 edition of the Craven Herald from a driver, presumably this time a professional driver, regarding their perception of the behaviour of cyclists. And again, like most of these letter writers, one feels that what Mr Tudor really wants, albeit left unstated, is that there should be no cyclists anywhere near “his” bit of the road, and ideally no cyclists on any road anywhere.

And should any cyclists dare to venture out, it is their responsibility, not to say their legal duty, to throw themselves and their bike into the ditch in order not to impede the passage of anyone in a motor vehicle.

Mr Tudor proceeds ask if it is not time that cyclists paid road tax? Oh dear Mr Tudor, it’s really time to catch up. There has been no such thing as “road tax”, since the 1930s, when it was abolished. The roads and roads maintenance are funded from general taxation, paid by everyone who is eligible, including cyclists. Owners and keepers of motor vehicles pay Vehicle Excise Duty, which is based on the air pollution their vehicle causes, and has nothing to do, other then indirectly, with building and maintaining the roads.

The consistent trotting out of the road tax argument simply goes to illustrate an ignorance of the realities of the world today. And one has to wonder what other prejudices might be based on a total misapprehension of the facts. It’s also worth pointing out that a tax-paying cyclist, who is not a vehicle owner, is also indirectly subsidising vehicle owners, and their use of the roads, to no personal benefit. The complete reverse of the “don’t pay road tax” argument!

It is a fact that many, if not most, adult cyclists are also drivers and so are fully aware of the problems confronting drivers on the roads today, and one can be sure they don’t suddenly lose that awareness when they get on their bikes. What they do do, is to become cyclists, which brings with it a whole additional level of awareness of how vulnerable one can be on a bike. This explains why a cyclist might well speed up in order to get to and beyond a traffic island, etc, ahead of a motor vehicle, and especially ahead of a bus or a truck; the risk of being squeezed off the road and at worst crushed, as a large and long vehicle attempts to get into a suddenly narrowed road space, is very real. Look at the data on recent cyclist deaths in London for confirmation.

The reverse, however, is not true and many, if not most, drivers are not also cyclists and so it’s difficult for them to comprehend the perceived and actual vulnerability of a cyclist on the road today. And, unfortunately, many drivers also seem unable to work through the simple logic that says the delay caused by having to wait until it’s safe to pass a cyclist or a group of cyclists (and there’s a whole other debate here about group cycling discipline) is, in most cases, minimal compared to their overall journey time. It’s as if, for some drivers, there’s a mental switch that gets thrown which makes every obstacle or impediment to their progress intolerable. I know, I’ve got one, it’s labelled ‘F’, for frustration, and at times it’s hard to keep it in the “off” position.

I write as a cyclist and a driver and I know in which environment I am in the greatest danger and I know in which environment I can represent the greatest danger to others. What’s needed is to raise every road user’s awareness of the problems of other road users, to raise the tolerance levels of all road users and to move on from the uninformed, negative, acrimonious and, frankly, puerile “don’t pay road tax” attitudes.

Otherwise, with the arrival of Le Tour and the huge increase in cycling and cyclists that will bring, we may see some sort of tragedy on our roads.

David Moore Gargrave On the other hand...

Sir – In last week’s letters page someone claimed that “a pedal cycle is a zero emission vehicle”. Surely, unless pedal cyclists “are life, but not as we know it, Jim”, a cyclist engaging in the strong physical exertion of pedalling has increased carbon dioxide emissions.

Indeed, it could also be pointed out that methane is also a greenhouse gas and is twenty five times more effective in that role than carbon dioxide. But I’d rather not go into the relevance of methane to strong physical exertion in the columns of your family newspaper!

H J Hill Grove Park Gardens Settle Canine campaigner Sir – My ears prick up and my tail is starting to wag as I hear that it is now 25 years since the church bells were rung in celebration of the saving of the Settle Carlisle Railway. No doubt many of my mobile four-legged companions will have travelled the iron road in that time.

It is certainly well beyond my dog years and my master as we now travel the National Railway of Heaven and my paw print can still be used on my rail pass.

All you readers young and old will wonder who I am as you whistle past me on your trips over viaducts and through long long tunnels with old fashioned signal boxes and the staff who man them in all God's weather.

Well, I am the dog that objected to the closure and my master Graham Nuttall who ran a good fight with his handwritten letters in ink and secret spies along the line of trains that did not run but really did. Don't get me going about the brass to rebuild the Ribblehead viaduct, grrrrr, I could have had a gold plated kennel and a lifelong supply of Winalot!

We all start to forget our history, so remember us and others who fought for the line. Should you visit me or catch a glimpse at Garsdale, give me a pat or wave cos we will be celebrating just like you. Woof woof.

Ruswarp Southbound Platform Garsdale Station PP Stewart Lewis Esp Lane Barnoldswick