Let’s keep a bus service for future Sir - May I, through you letters pages, thank Richard Blaikie, manager of Kirkby Lonsdale Coaches, for taking over some routes of the old Pennine Buses.

It has been a fantastic result after councillors, officers, members of the public and too many people to mention have all worked towards getting a new service up and running.

The people of Ribblesdale and Craven owe them a debt of gratitude and long may it continue.

But let’s not be complacent; we need to “use it or lose it”.

I have heard it said many times that people would willingly pay instead if using their bus pass to keep a service running. So perhaps paying for half a journey or using the pass once every three journey, for example, would help.

The operators have agreed to to run it for a year and then assess its commercial viability.

So as a community we all need to contribute if we want to have a bus service this time next year.

Well done everyone, and let’s see if we can keep a bus service for future generations and help our communities prosper.

County councillor Richard Welch Ribblesdale Raines Road Giggleswick Town’s market forces Sir - I refer to Mr G Salisbury’s response (“How would it be the other way around?”, Letters, July 24) to an article which featured myself leaving Skipton Market (Market trader says town council ‘should do more’, July 17).

Mr Salisbury, while correct in his calculation regarding our “hourly trading rate”, is unfortunately misinformed about exactly what the average stallholder has to pay to trade on Skipton Market.

How nice it would be to just pitch up, pay a pound and hour and whip up a stall!

Skipton is a unique market whose rights and byelaws have been wrangled over by barristers in years gone by and been given up in a mass of tangled confusion.

Traders firstly buy their business (unlike other council-run markets) from the previous trader.

They then pay a considerable monthly rent to their frontage (shop or business they trade outside), a consent fee for Skipton Town Council, business rates, a percentage of rateable value is paid to Skipton BID and lastly a public liability.

This is all before you factor in fuel to get work, stock, wages, van maintenance, etc.

My personal outlay was moderate compared to some other stallholders, and I can tell you that Mr Salisbury’s arithmetic for our “rent” is only a fraction of what stallholders have to pay.

Skipton Market draws people in from all over the country, it’s what makes Skipton a unique, bustling town.

Without it, it becomes just another high street struggling to fill its shops.

If Skipton loses its identity then it fails to draw regular costume. Unfortunately visitor numbers have dropped considerably in the last few years, resulting in stallholders being absent due to taking second jobs or, like me, giving up entirely.

Dwindling numbers of traders and empty pitches have given way to a smaller, fractured market; this has a knock-on effect for shops and businesses alike.

Skipton Town Council has an impeccable record for promoting events such as Sheep Day, the Waterways Festival, etc, so I’m confused as to why the High Street has not been given the same priority.

It can’t be due to lack of funds, as Mr Salisbury’s letter shows - there are at least 50 stalls, each giving around £100 a month to Skipton Town Council.

I hope Skipton Town Council finds the time and resources to look after Skipton’s historic market.

We proudly have signs on the perimeter of our town welcoming visitors to Skipton, historic market town.

Please don’t let there be a need to have them removed.

Heidi Brandt Carleton Bloom judging thanks Sir - I would like to say a big thank-you to everyone who ensured that the town was looking at its very best for the Yorkshire in Bloom (YIB) judges’ visit last Thursday.

Volunteers worked hard weeding, pruning, watering and litter picking - and in some particularly high temperatures too.

Local residents, businesses and schools welcomed the YIB judges into their gardens and allotments.

The judges were particularly impressed with work in The Wilderness and our new basket trees in The Springs garden off Coach Street, but we will have to wait until September to hear whether we have matched last year’s Gold Award.

If anyone has a couple of hours to spare and would like to be kept informed of our project work days, please email info@skiptoninbloom.co.uk Sue Warburton Skipton in Bloom www.skiptoninbloom.co.uk Addressing absurdity Sir - Last Friday was the 100th birthday of the mother of a pal, and, amongst the many well-wishers was my brother, who posted a card - first-class - from Keighley (to Skipton) on the day previous.

The card duly arrived on the Friday, but with a Glasgow postmark.

How come?

Surely Keighley to Skipton mail does not have to go all the way to Glasgow to be sorted. Or does it?

If so, then no wonder the postal charges are so exorbitant.

Whatever else though, do not blame the lads and lasses working on the shop floor and delivering the mail.

The absurdity lies more, I suggest, at the door of the “jobsworth” bureaucrats higher up.

All a far cry from the days when myself and your “last week featured” TV celebrity David Hill, amongst others, worked for the Post Office in the days of Harold “you’ve never had it so good” Macmillan - and he was probably right on that score - when local mail could be posted and sorted locally, and delivered the same day.

And this - compared to shop-floor wages of that era - at a far cheaper rate.

Roger Ingham Aldersley Avenue Skipton Help at accident Sir - We were recently involved in a small accident with the car in Church Street, Settle, and wish to record our appreciation of the great help given to us by the local people.

We were overwhelmed by the offers of practical assistance we received in the situation and are so grateful for the kindness shown to us by many total strangers.

Peter and Christina Fenwick Ripon Beating boredom Sir - With the school summer holidays stretching out ahead of us, the RSPCA’s Young Photographer Awards is the perfect boredom buster for children.

They could win a brilliant prize for taking a photo of their favourite animal - whether that’s a shot of a snail in the garden, a portrait of the family pooch or a snap of a sheep in a field.

Plus, if they are a finalist, they will be invited to the awards ceremony at the Tower of London in December that I am hosting.

I’ve been judging the competition for several years now and it’s always really exciting to sift through the entries and whittle them down to the winning shots.

There are some beautiful photographs which literally take your breath away, some shots which make you see animals in a completely different way and some pictures which just make you laugh.

Don’t worry - you don’t need an expensive camera to take part.

If you are 18 and under just get snapping and visit www.rspca.org.uk/ypa for more information about the categories and how to enter.

Entries for this year’s competition are already rolling in thick and fast, but there is still plenty of time to submit your photos before the closing date on August 25.

Chris Packham RSPCA Horsham West Sussex Resident’s complaint Sir - Craven District Council’s planning department and councillors have failed abysmally to protect existing nearby residents from the noise, dust, heavy traffic, etc, generated by giving planning permission for such a large 57-unit development at “Lambert Hills”, on Granville Street, Skipton.

The contractors, Lovells, who have been on site for more than 12 months, have already encroached on the public right of way at the bottom of the site and damaged many trees.

So far approximately four units have been completed, so nearby residents face many more months or even years of constant misery.

Julian Smith (our MP) has been asked to visit the site in the hope that he can offer advice on what Skipton council taxpayers can do.

Lovells’ attitude is “we were given planning permission”, which they apparently feel entitles them to do what they please.

C Fletcher Hall Croft Skipton Sweeping statement (Copy of a letter sent to North Yorkshire County Council.) Sir - Your highway workers have made an excellent job of repairing the potholes at the lower end of Marton Road, Gargrave. They took great care to keep the surrounding areas free of debris while they were working, using the good old broom method!

However, no one has thought to return to clear the area of of loose chippings and gravel, so the gutters and pavements are full of the debris.

It spoils the look of the very good work done on the potholes.

You are probably too young to remember that the lengthsman with his broom made a far better job of that than these fussy mechanical road sweepers. I am a bit past doing more than my section of the pavement!

Olive Payne Marton Close Gargrave Kicking out polio Sir - July 18 marked Nelson Mandela Day and on behalf of The British Polio Fellowship I would like to express my thanks to Mr Mandela for the work that he did to help ‘Kick Polio Out of Africa’.

In 1996 polio was rife in Africa. Political tensions, warfare and lack of funding all hampered efforts to immunise people against polio. With the help of Nelson Mandela Rotary International were able to launch the campaign to ‘Kick Polio Out of Africa’. South Africa is now polio free, but the task remains to ‘Kick Polio Out of Africa’ for good.

Millions of people in Africa have now been immunised against polio and there has been a sharp fall in recorded cases. The role of Nelson Mandela in this was great and I would like to express my thanks to his memory. I would also like to ask your readers for their support in the ongoing fight against the late effects of polio and post polio syndrome (PPS) here in the UK.

In Britain, some 80 per cent of polio survivors (an estimated 120,000 people) go on to develop PPS and they need all the help that we can give them.

Polio survivors struggle on with severe paralysis, wasted limbs and mobility issues and, for them, life gets a whole lot harder as PPS looms. The British Polio Fellowship is on hand to help and to do that we need the support of the public.

To find out how you can help The British Polio Fellowship or for information about joining please contact us on 0800 018 0586 or visit www.britishPolio.org.uk Ted Hill MBE CEO, The British Polio Fellowship Can you spot him?

Sir - As an attempt to encourage younger readers, may I suggest a competition where a lucky winner spots an issue of the Craven Herald that doesn’t have a picture of Ben Crick, scaling one of the local peaks, with a cello strapped to his back?

Richard Mavor Sawley Close Embsay