Unrealistic expectation of volunteer-led libraries

However, as your readers will be aware NYCC is confronted with having to identify around £168 million budget cuts imposed by the coalition government. As part of these cuts, the library service budget is again being reduced, this time to £4.2 million, and the service will have to change. In doing so the county council’s executive must identify the best possible library service for the public which is equitable, cost effective and sustainable into the future.

Having fully considered the library consultation proposals and listened to many local people, I don’t believe that the county council’s approach of expanding its community-run model on the scale proposed would achieve these objectives. Furthermore, it’s an unrealistic expectation of volunteers to be responsible for both the management and running of these proposed community libraries.

Instead a robust challenge of all library service operating costs should be undertaken and other options identified. The reduced budget of £4.2 million is a substantial sum that must be best utilised for the benefit of all users of the library service.

County Cllr Philip Barrett (Independent), South Craven Division.

Dose of caution: SIR - I would like to add a local perspective to the feature in Dales Life on January 22 entitled “Key to safe rural cycling”. The article accurately points to the huge benefits that accrue to the local economy and to the general health of the population from cycling.

This positive message, however, must be delivered with a dose of caution. All road users need to be aware of the vulnerability of cyclists on our roads. Members of Skipton Cycling Club can testify to the risks encountered on its club runs on local roads on a weekly basis. This is not to give the impression that we get on our bikes worrying about what we might meet when we set off.

Cycling in a rural setting is a comparatively safe activity. It is both challenging and rewarding and the growing number of Skipton Cycling Club members are doing it because of the sheer enjoyment and benefits that it brings.

The concept of Sharing the Road as described in the Highway Code is paramount when considering the sometimes vexed issues that have been raised regularly in these pages by your readers.

Skipton Cycling Club adopts a safety first approach for its members on club rides. This means that when cyclists ride two-abreast it is to create the shortest possible distance to overtake rather than to ride in a lengthy single line which often makes it difficult for the driver to complete a safe overtaking manoeuvre. When the road width narrows, a call to “single out” will be made in acknowledgement of the limited space.

It is unlikely that road conditions will improve dramatically in the current climate of public spending constraints. So drivers should be aware that a straight line cannot always be maintained by cyclists and make allowances for this when following behind or overtaking.

Skipton Cycling Club and other local clubs continue to grow as cycling increases in popularity fanned by the impact of last year’s Tour de France and this will no doubt continue after this year’s Tour de Yorkshire visits the district. The need for a greater commitment to Sharing the Road will not diminish.

Steve Wilkinson, Skipton Cycling Club, Whinfield Court, Skipton.

Totally unnerved: SIR - A letter from me was published in The Craven Herald in May 2014 after I had driven back from Skipton and overtaken two separate cyclists wearing dark clothing on a dull, drizzly day and been very unnerved by the inability to see them well ahead and react accordingly. Since then I have written many letters to various different organisations to ask them to campaign for mandatory use of high visibility clothing by all vulnerable road users - cyclists, joggers, walkers, horse riders and motorcyclists. The response has been, to quote, The Highway Code merely advises its use.

Well, I’m waiting for someone to have the “light bulb” moment and realise that the Highway Code needs amending to make it mandatory in the same way motorists have to wear seat belts and obey speed limits.

In May last year I was awaiting a cataract operation and, although within the legal limit, my sight was obviously not perfect. I have since had a cataract operation and my sight is such that I can now easily read even the smallest letters on the test card. However driving into Skipton last week I came up behind a cyclist dressed from head to toe in dark green waterproofs against the falling drizzle. He had a very narrow fluorescent band on each sleeve but was otherwise almost invisible. Again I was totally unnerved at the possible consequences of an incident. I am a steady driver but I do know that I am not alone in wishing action could be taken.

Whilst on the subject of a cataract operation and that other political “hot potato” the NHS, can I express my thanks and deep admiration for all the staff who have cared for me over the last ten years. Firstly at the Bradford Royal Infirmary A & E Eye Unit, more recently in-patient care at Airedale and day care at Skipton General, and finally a hospital in Lancashire where the care taken with the said cataract operation was amazing.

So, yes, let’s hear it for the NHS and give them all the support they deserve. Just a suggestion - many companies pay for private medical care for their staff, why not at the same time pay an equivalent amount into the NHS for the good of all?

Thanks must also be expressed to Grassington Helping Hands whose drivers took me to most of the appointments. The charity is short of volunteer drivers, particularly those prepared to drive to hospitals in Bradford, Leeds and Airedale.

Gill Driver, Grassington.

Economic legacy: SIR - The Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (Letters, January 22) refers to past issues of the historical economic legacy. Since 2010 the Coalition Government has needed to attend to the legacy of the previous administration. I can confirm that the “Sorry there is nothing left” note in the Treasury tin was reality. It is clear that the Labour administration of the time had a responsibility for the UK situation within the wider global economy.

Liberal Democrats in the Coalition have worked hard to restrain Tory austerity measures, including blocking plans for inheritance tax cuts for millionaires and for removing young people’s housing benefit. Liberal Democrats have successfully pushed for an increased lower level of entry for taxation. The threshold is now £10,000, rising to £10,500 in April 2015, which means that at least 37,000 people across Yorkshire and the Humber Region will be lifted out of paying income tax altogether. This is not exactly the picture painted by the Labour candidate.

As a member of a Liberal Democrat Federal Working Party on tackling poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity, I personally worked on the provision of the pupil premium, which is helping to lift many children out of poverty across the UK and support educational attainment for all. The Liberal Democrats are responsible for the policy of free school meals for all infant school children - this includes 18,036 children a day in the North Yorkshire County Council area. Liberal Democrat policy has also ensured an increase in the numbers of locally available apprenticeship opportunities.

Local Liberal Democrats have been actively campaigning to oppose inappropriate housing developments and cuts to the local library services.

The Labour Party continues to be in denial about its past record when in Government. Liberal Democrats have been dismayed by the recent news that the Chilcot Report into circumstances surrounding the Iraq War, which the Liberal Democrats were the only party in Parliament to oppose, will not be released before the General Election. This means that key figures like Jack Straw, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair could be getting off lightly. We believe that they need to be held to account: both victims of the war and the public deserve answers.

Jacquie Bell, PPC Skipton and Ripon Liberal Democrats, High Street, Belhaven.

First baby: SIR - The picture and article in the Craven Herald on January 15 of Dr Pam Douglas OBE, who has died, brought back to me memories of the late 1950s.

I came to Tosside to be headteacher at the school in January 1955. I lived alone in the school house - I did not drive, but we had a bus on Tuesdays - to Settle in the morning and back in the afternoon. So I put my name on Dr O’Connor’s list (I could go in the school holidays or get a parent to pick up any tablets I needed).

In October 1958, I married Harold (Nip) Newhouse and in October 1959, we had our first son.

Dr Pam Hogg was now partner to Dr O’Connor and she gave me all the help and advice I needed before Stephen was born.

I had the baby in the maternity hospital in Skipton, and when I came home Dr Hogg came to see him and said: “This is the first baby of my medical career.”

What a lovely welcome!

Vera Newhouse, Well House Farm, Tosside.

Real risk: SIR - I was surprised to read that there are proposals for 220 new homes in Cross Hills but not a single one of them will be affordable housing. When did this vital planning requirement suddenly disappear from the criteria for approval?

Whilst it is very welcome to see the possibility of a new bridge over the railway, I would have thought that it was standard practice to require a planning gain of this nature.

Our need is for more affordable houses so local people can remain in the area. If we drop this requirement for one scheme then we are at real risk of finding other schemes decide the need for affordable houses can be quietly forgotten.

Andy Brown, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Green Party for Skipton and Ripon, Main Street, Cononley.

New hope: SIR - Thirteen years ago I moved to South Craven (Glusburn) wrongly thinking that the Cross Hills railway station would be reopening.

Disappointingly, as I am a frequent rail traveller, we seemed no nearer to achieving this goal until your headline story last week gave me hope that progress might now be made.

Yes let’s build 220 houses or even double that number if it gets the station built and solves the level crossing problem with a new bridge.

If Cross Hills had been in West Yorkshire, I’m sure the station would already have been reopened - it has a large catchment area of potential travellers.

Further down the line towards Leeds, I see that construction of Apperley Bridge Station is currently under way.

Network Rail’s insistence that the level crossing barriers close five minutes before a train actually passes causes massive queues here as all locals know.

If building the houses facilitates a new road bridge, a railway station, the necessary highway improvements at adjacent junctions, and helps us reach the target of new housebuilding, let it be done!

John Heaton, Ickornshaw, Cowling.

Festooned with mess: SIR - Once again the pavement between the corner of Water Street and Primrose Hill in Skipton has been “festooned” with dog mess. This is a narrow pavement and the only way to avoid the mess has been to risk life and limb on the road.

Whilst this has been possible for able bodied people, those in a wheelchair or with small children have had to negotiate their way round the problems. Grateful thanks must go to the “good Samaritan” who cleaned the mess up. A second notice has appeared on the railings.

This is not as polite as the one before Christmas which was obviously totally ignored. There is obviously no point appealing to the dog owner’s conscience as he/she does not have one. One can only hope that the offending dog owner(s) will eventually be prosecuted.

Carole Rawson Park Street, Skipton.

Lifesaving thanks: SIR - I am now on the way to recovery and would like, through your paper, to give a big thank you to all the people concerned in saving my life on November 4, 2014.

While talking to my friend Brian Nash at his backyard gate, in St John’s Court, Shortbank Road, Skipton, I was struck down with two blockades of heart arteries.

Brian, although under shock, made a quick response, giving me CPR treatment and got me back to life. He shouted to his wife to call an ambulance and within four minutes, the ambulance arrived and I passed away again.

Luckily, they got me round and back to life. Thank you. What would we do without the Yorkshire Ambulance Service?

A big thank you to all concerned in saving my life and all the well-wishers who sent me get well cards and letters while I was in hospital. I appreciate all of you.

Allan Mason, Jennygill Crescent, Skipton.

Chance in power: SIR - In answer to Dino Reardon’s reply to John D Clark (January 22) his history lesson of 60-plus years ago was all very interesting but his beloved Labour Party changed its allegiance away from the ordinary people under Blair and Brown. The New Labour that emerged had its chance in power but the gap between the rich and poor actually widened during their government.

Regarding the banking crisis, it was Gordon Brown’s deregulation of the banks that enabled them to “invest” in the American mortgage market to such disastrous effect. The banks were bailed out by the taxpayer and the bankers kept their jobs and their bonuses. OK, two chief executives lost their jobs but now oversee committees that regulate the banks. You couldn’t make it up. Compare that to the Blair/Brown government which sacked thousands of civil servants.

Mr Reardon lambasted the Tories for their privatisation of public assets but Labour privatised public assets too. Labour could have re-nationalised the railways, for example, and saved billions of taxpayers’ money but didn’t.

Finally he also blamed the funding crisis in the NHS on the Tories.

The latest figures suggest that the NHS pays one billion pounds a year just in interest on PFI loans but the Blair/Brown government imposed PFI loans on many schools/hospitals instead of allowing them to borrow at the cheaper interest rate they had been used to. Gordon Brown even pretended that PFI “funding” wasn’t official borrowing and kept it off the books.

Many of the working classes have lost their jobs through the austerity measures but not the bankers. Plenty of Labour MPs are likely to lose their jobs in the forthcoming election, especially in Scotland. Is that what he means by the Labour party representing the working classes?

David Noland, Brougham Street, Skipton.

Financial security: SIR - It is astounding to read Dino Reardon and Malcolm Birks’ letters in the Craven Herald last week (January 22).

They cannot accept that a failure of Labour designed regulation and Labour fiscal inprudence has any blame for the financial crisis which led to the deepest recession since the 1930s.

It is worrying in particular that Labour’s candidate should hold this view and it indicates that Ed Miliband’s party has not changed one bit. They have no plan to secure our future and his only policies are to spend, borrow and tax more.

Mr Birks wants a campaign for fairness but it can’t be fair to put our financial security at risk, which is what having weak and short-termist Ed Miliband as Prime Minister would do.

Ann Sheridan Keasden.

Abhorrent abuse: SIR - What? The unspoiled beauty of the Broughton Hall estate churned up by motor vehicles driven by Mr Clarkson and his crew just for the pleasure of themselves and TV watching idiots?

My contempt at the abhorrent abuse of the environment in so many respects and precious resources like fuels/materials etc is hard to express politely.

Samuel Moore, Todmorden.

Wry amusement: SIR - I wonder how many of the faithful readers of the Craven Herald enjoy the same level of wry amusement as me in the recent content of your letters page?

As the election approaches, we once again see a flush of letters from people who have remained anonymous since the previous election and who just now find an issue so important and pressing that they just must write to you for publication and to air their views and have us admire their wise and considered opinions, knowing full-well the extent of your readership.

Should I consider that it would be hypercritical of me to ascribe ulterior motives to these public-spirited correspondents just because they sign the letters off with a detailed description of their candidature in the forthcoming elections or should I retain my cynicism?

Harry Roumain, Skipton.