How would it be the other way around

Sir - The article published on July 17 regarding Miss Heidi Brandt ‘calling it a day’ quoted her as paying £132 a month in rent for her stall.

This rent is presumably for market days, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, totalling around £33 a week for around 32 hours a week (with conditional free parking on the High Street).

The rent paid for around 32 hours is just over £1 an hour.

If the rent paid for a stall is for less than four days it still works out less than a local pays for eight hours of parking in the Town Hall car park for a small car.

Let the locals pay the same rates as traders for parking on the setts and the traders pay the same rate as locals for trading on the car park and insist they park their vehicles in the car park at the same rate as the public pay (freeing the High Street of parked vehicles).

Something tells me the traders would find something to complain about.

Mr G Salisbury Embsay ‘Facts’ on town cells Sir - On July 13, the Craven Herald published a piece regarding the proposed closure of the custody suite at Skipton, and the perceived impact on local policing. It is important that your readers are aware of the facts.

Recently, North Yorkshire Police has been reviewing how to make best use of its resources – including how we can maximise the number of police officers on the streets.

At present, some 630 detainees per year are taken into custody at Skipton which equates to less than two each day. For a custody complex to operate, a custody sergeant is required 24 hours per day, every day, and that creates a significant cost which is not proportionate to the demand.

Although this is a small number of detainees compared with other custody facilities in the region (and one that is dropping year on year), local police officers are responsible for doing all paperwork associated with these arrests.

As a result of our review, we will continue to have the police station in Skipton but will move custody to Harrogate. In this way, administration can be handled centrally and – even with travel times taken into account – we can free up officers to return to active local policing in Skipton and Craven.

This is a better deal for the public, and will help us to manage our costs in a tough financial climate. There are no facts to support the view in the article that this will have a negative impact on Skipton’s courts.

Keeping communities safe is vitally important, so it is natural that new approaches will be subject to debate. However, North Yorkshire Police is committed to making changes, if the facts show that we can serve the public’s needs better by doing so with the resources which we have available.

Assistant chief constable Paul Kennedy North Yorkshire Police Newby Wiske Northallerton Most important issue AS YET another greenfield planning application arrives in the Craven District, this time at Sutton-in-Craven, we again find ourselves at the mercy of a developer exploiting the failure of our district councillors to produce a Local Development Plan.

This plan would recognise suitable development sites in the Craven district and thus prevent sites not recognised from being developed. To my knowledge this plan has been under ‘urgent’ consideration for over seven years. Some urgency! We must ask ourselves how much resource has been made available to process it.

This is the most important issue to the public in the Craven district outside the national park. The national park has special protection from normal development issues. Is it possible that our council leadership have wards in the national park and as such see no urgency in resolving this issue.

Unfortunately, unlike the rest of the Craven district, Sutton-in-Craven has its boundary with the Bradford Met District Council, who have allowed 200 properties to be built next to Airedale Hospital at Steeton, allowed a smaller development at the other end of Sutton Lane at Eastburn, the road on which this application is proposed, and over 150 houses at Eastburn recommended for approval by Bradford Met Council.

South Craven, Steeton and Eastburn share the same infrastructure, all of which are inadequate; sewage systems, roads and pavements, health centres under the new CCG commissioning group, primary schools and South Craven School.

Do the planners at Craven and Bradford really understand the damage they are doing to our communities? How can we possibly cope with approximately another 400 houses with their primary and secondary school children along with more elderly residents?

How long before Sutton and Eastburn become one? Do we really want this?

Roger Nicholson Park Drive Sutton-in-Craven Poor service for Tour Sir - On reading last week’s Craven Herald I was surprised at the lack of letters of complaint regarding the poor service offered by Northern Rail for this much-publicised and greatly anticipated event (the Tour de France).

Perhaps others, like myself, expected your newspaper to be inundated with such correspondence.

I am sure that many of the people left standing at stations along the route had booked in advance, as we did, giving the rail company some indication of the numbers of travellers they could anticipate.

At Hellifield Station both the 9.19am from Morecambe and the 9.39am from Carlisle were full to capacity and the train doors were not even opened, leaving over 100 disappointed passengers. The guard on the latter did confirm he had reported the situation and there “might” be a bus service later from Settle.

I have since learned that over 250 people were left at Settle Station, although a bus was provided later in the morning. Quite how those people managed to find somewhere to watch the Grand Depart is unknown. We were fortunate enough to make alternative arrangements, but the whole event could so easily have been ruined for many.

I have since contacted Northern Rail regarding a refund and pointed out that their services were woefully inadequate on the day.

I appreciate that it is difficult to organise extra carriages at short notice, but this cannot have been the excuse on this occasion.

Thankfully this poor start did not detract from our overall enjoyment.

We congratulate Skipton and the surrounding areas for such a well-organised and exciting event.

Pauline Hey Skipton Road Hellifield Generous gesture Sir - I refer to last week’s response about the prices at The Castle Inn on Tour de France (TDF) and about Calvin’s generous gesture, I would just like to say that the prices were substantially lowered across the board and were available to everybody who went in on the Sunday, as we did and found out.

We also happened to go in on TDF day too, and I would like to also say that, although he put the prices up on beers, lagers, etc, the prices were in fact lower on spirits (I drink gin and tonic) wines and soft drinks.

Soft drinks, for example, were at least 80p cheaper than a majority of the town’s pubs. Brilliant for those with young families.

Give the guy a chance! We’ve lived in Skipton for 19 years, and wouldn’t have dreamt of going into the Castle Inn until Calvin took over. He’s always behind the bar, whenever we go in, he’s worked extremely hard to get the pub to where it is.

If he wants to put up his prices when there are 50,000 people on his doorstep, who can blame him, and out of all of the other pubs who put up their prices, I didn’t see any others lowering them for a day as a gesture of thanks, did you?

A Everett Skipton Keep party politics out Sir - Councillor Wendy Clark’s patronising and condescending letter last week has convinced me that I will never vote Conservative in local elections again.

If she is proud of her party, why is she willing to accept her party paying for an election campaign, while apparently the candidates tried desperately to show they had nothing to do with the Tory party itself, something that many Conservative voters and donors find insulting?

You can’t have it both ways, Cllr Clark.

Also, if you are so keen on local issues being above party politics, why not be honest with the voters and stand as individuals, which is what happens in every other parish council in the area except for Skipton, and keep party politics out of local councils altogether?

D Tasker Marton Street Gargrave ‘Cavalier’ over cash Sir – Craven Ratepayers’ Action Group (CRAG) is well used to Craven District Council’s (CDC) cavalier attitude towards public money, but the latest news regarding Skipton’s new complex, Albion Place, must surely warrant a comment.

It has now changed hands for over £9 million, and CDC will now receive £831,000 for the sale, a sale including property on the High Street for which CDC had paid £985,000 in 1989, and which also included at least 105 car parking spaces.

As to the worth of those car parking spaces. CDC received a report from their asset and project manager on October 2 last year that the income from parking was £1,350 plus VAT pa per space, making the income from the number sold to Maple Grove around £142,000 pa.

As to their capital value, Windle Beech and Winthrop are selling just one at present, down an unmade road off Newmarket Street. They are expecting to receive a minimum of £10,000 for that space. This is a reasonable amount, as it will cost you an average of £1,350 each year to park centrally according to CDC.

To add insult to injury, CRAG has been informed that CDC will receive a bill for Maple Grove’s costs in marketing the property, thereby reducing the pittance they are to receive!

Why is the council virtually giving away our property? Beginning by selling our council houses at £5,400 each, continued by hugely underpricing the Gargrave Road sale to HML – an obvious fact to anyone but the council at the time, and now admitted by them, but don’t expect heads to roll.

It was advised against leasing Belle Vue Mills by the then asset and properties manager and the head of finance – but went ahead anyway, asking for a value for money report after the lease was signed.

You really could not make it up, could you?

Alan Perrow CRAG Bannister Walk Cowling Musical diversity Sir - I feel compelled to write for the first time in reply to the letter in the newspaper on July 17 by Rowena (Bunty) Leder of Grassington.

In the letter Rowena highlights that Skipton and the Dales is a cultural mecca and cites Skipton Music and Camerata as seemingly being the only groups that ‘...fills our musical needs’. I feel I need to redress the balance. Possibly Rowena does not appreciate the diversity that is prevalent in the area.

Has she not heard of Skipton Community Orchestra, Skipton Brass, Skipton Ukulele Club, and The Dales Jam, to name a few? All these groups (and others I have no doubt missed) contribute substantially to the area being a ‘cultural mecca’.

As Rowena commented, ‘all live music must be supported’ and this means celebrating what all other musical groups achieve and how they also contribute and inspire the local community. All these groups provide concerts, mostly free and for the sheer joy of making and sharing all kinds of music... long may this tradition carry on!

Catherine Davison Co-founder Skipton Community Orchestra Brougham Street Skipton Warm weather danger Sir - Last year, during a two-month period of unusually warm weather, six people drowned in former quarry lakes across the UK.

Quarry operators know that the warmer weather heralds an increase in young people and adults entering quarries uninvited with potentially tragic consequences. This has been reinforced by two fatalities in quarry lakes and a serious injury following a fall from a quarry rock face this year.

With the start of the school summer holidays and warmer weather, the Mineral Products Association (MPA) is keen to ensure that these risks are better understood and to appeal to parents to ensure that their youngsters are not tempted to enter into local quarries uninvited.

With over1,300 active quarries and many more former sites located across the UK, there is a high probability that anyone reading this letter will live within a few miles of one of these sites.

Our Stay Safe campaign is supported by the parents’ of teenagers who have died in quarry accidents. They believe that their sons might still be alive today if they had understood the risks they were taking.

Quarry lakes or other open water like reservoirs may look inviting but the temperature of the water can be icy cold, extremely deep and conceal unexpected hazards such as currents, pumps, weeds or obstacles hidden beneath the water.

The impact that cold water can have on one’s body can result in even very experienced swimmers suddenly finding themselves in trouble and the water can be difficult to exit.

Other dangers people expose themselves to include unstable or concealed cliff edges that could give way, falling rocks, stockpiles that can collapse when children tunnel into them and settling ponds that can act like quicksand. Quad and trail biking in quarries exposes riders to the risks from unstable ground suddenly collapsing or being hit by plant or machinery.

I would urge parents and others to view and share our Facebook page Stay Safe Stay Out of Quarries with others. Our message and the message from the parents of the boys who have been killed is simple - unless you are invited on an organised visit by the quarry operator – Please Stay Safe ...Stay Out of Quarries.

Elizabeth Clements Mineral Products Association London EU ‘hypocrisy’ Sir - I have now completed just my second week as member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, and although I knew it wouldn’t be long before I saw some of the rank hypocrisy we in UKIP know the EU have perfected over the years, even I wasn’t expecting to see it on day one, and so blatantly.

If a member of the public travelled from Bradford to Brussels (I don’t recommend it) they would not be able to smoke for the entire journey from the taxi from their house to the station, on the train to London, on the Eurostar, then on the Brussels metro to the Parliament. The politicians have decided we are not allowed to do that.

Once in Brussels, like in the UK, you can’t smoke in buildings the public have access to - oh, except one, the Parliament.

The EU has decided that they don’t have to follow the rules that have been set for the public to obey. This might be seen as just a minor point, of little consequence to the outside world, but the trouble is, this hypocritical attitude carries through to very important areas.

It seems there is nothing the EU enjoys more than criticising dodgy elections in numerous non EU nations, serious concerns are raised and terms like ‘undemocratic’ are banded around with smug superiority.

Yet just a few days ago a new EU president was elected by a significant majority, not because he was favoured above the other candidates but because the EU would not allow anyone else to stand and insisted he was the only candidate. Even elections in Zimbabwe have more than one candidate.

This level of hypocrisy is damaging not just to the EU, but globally. How can the EU expect what may be legitimate concerns to be taken seriously when it is undertaking the same or worse practises?

I will do my best to provide you with regular updates, so you can judge for yourself what you think of the EU, but considering the events of the first 14 days don’t be expecting me to recommend this place on TripAdvisor.

Amjad Bashir UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Leeds Concerns on welfare Sir - We don’t know yet what the recent cabinet reshuffle may mean for people with disabilities and long-term conditions, including the 250,000 with the chronic fluctuating condition, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).

But we do know that the new Minister of State for Disabled People, Mark Harper MP, strongly supports a reduction in welfare benefit spending.

People with ME, with symptoms including disabling fatigue, chronic pain, digestive problems and cognitive difficulties, tell us that they want to work, if only they were well enough to do so.

Unfortunately 25 per cent of people with ME are so ill that they remain house or bed-bound. We urge Mr Harper not to reduce the support these vulnerable people need to survive.

Anyone with ME who has questions or concerns about accessing benefits can contact our Welfare Advice and Support Service on 0845 122 8648 or visit www.actionforme.org.uk Sonya Chowdhury Chief Executive Action for ME Keynsham