‘Prosecute to stop dog fouling in area’ Sir - Last year, the Sunday Times named Skipton the best place to live in Britain. Most of us are very proud of this delightful town, and consider ourselves extremely fortunate to live in such a charming place.

It is a tragedy that some people defile our environment by allowing their dogs to leave piles of excrement on the pavements, and particularly the canal bank.

This is a hideously antisocial act, but also illegal, as displayed on the numerous signs attached to lampposts, threatening these offenders with fines up to £1,000.

I recently made a freedom of information request to Craven District Council to ask how many such offenders had been prosecuted. I received the following reply from a senior environmental health officer: “...we have prosecution (sic) no one for dog fouling in Craven”. What a surprise! The enforcing authority effectively gives licence for this filthy desecration of our town.

Can I suggest that all Skipton councillors, and relevant council officers, do everything possible to ensure that prosecutions take place, in a determined effort to cleanse this town of such irresponsible behaviour.

This seems to have been successful in other places and I see no reason why it shouldn’t work here. That is, if anybody can be bothered to do something about it.

Jon Leach Gainsborough Court Skipton Building up stress?

Sir - Further to your front page article last week regarding Craven District Council’s negotiations with Lovells to build the houses on Horse Close and the reactions from Granville Street residents. We hope that the council takes notice of the stress and distress caused to residents by this company.

The movement of construction traffic was one of the issues raised when planning permission was passed for Elsey Croft and will also be a major factor in the building of houses on Horse Close.

As they have begun to build this year we are aware that construction traffic is already causing houses to shake and leave mud on the road. There has also been deterioration in the road surface. Some days wagons are arriving well before the reasonable time of 7.30am disturbing neighbouring residents.

Some of these wagons are using Greatwood as shortcut and whilst a discussion with the Canal and Waterways has given an assurance that the bridge on to Greatwood from Keighley Road is strong enough to carry the weight of wagons but how long will it be before the road surfaces will be damaged as the streets surrounding Granville Street have been? These roads were not designed to carry such heavy vehicles.

We know that you have to crack eggs to make an omelette but Craven District Council need to learn lessons from the Granville Street debacle and use planning conditions and the law to ensure that the residents of Moorview Way and Horse Close are protected as much as possible from the noise, dirt, disturbance and to ensure that neighbouring residents’ (and council taxpayers’) quality of life is maintained.

S Smith S Hartley Moorview Way Skipton ‘Surprise’ in vote Sir - Craven Ratepayers’ Action Group (CRAG) notices that British Home Stores has been sold by Sir Philip Green for the princely sum of £1. Whilst this does not seem a lot, the new owners have to take on the pensions liability for the 11,000 staff, and this equates to around £100 million – equalling a pension ‘pot’ of under £10,000 per employee.

CRAG wonders what the worth of Craven District might be today.

With around 230 employees, their pensions liability, according to their latest published accounts, is over £54 million, with a deficit in that scheme of over £20 million. This equates to around £1/4 million per employee.

It also appears that any ‘payoffs’ to staff leaving early, such as the £50,000 paid to Joanna Miller along with a ‘gagging clause’ comes out of this publicly funded pension fund, and CRAG has asked for details of all others who have received such payoffs over the last ten years.

As with all good stories, there is a moral to this story – if you want a good pension, you can see where you should be working.

Meanwhile, CRAG also notes that CDC held an extraordinary meeting of council on Wednesday 18th to discuss their favoured partner for the Horse Close building scheme.

Having decided to hold it in private, away from the prying eyes of the public whose views they are supposed to represent, many councillors made speeches concerning reported problems given to residents by Lovells in their work on Granville Street. To the surprise of many, those Tory and Lib-Dem councillors who had spoken against Lovell as a partner, then proceeded to vote in favour of that company!

Alan Perrow CRAG Bannister Walk Cowling Excellent shops Sir - Thank you for printing my letter last week about the decline of Skipton High Street.

However, there was a printing error (probably due to the fact my latter was handwritten).

I wrote: “There is nothing wrong with discount stores such as Boyes nor charity shops,” which you printed as not charity shops.

The charity shops in Skipton are excellent, I frequent them often and donate.

The important point was that we need a choice of shops and not too many of the same type.

I also forgot to mention that I think expensive parking may also be contributing to shops not being profitable.

Town centre shops are vital to me as I do not have a car.

Mrs Lesley Widdop Ermysted Street Skipton Editor’s note: We are sorry for the error in typing out Mrs Widdop’s letter. We would encourage readers who are able to access email to use it whenever possible when sending contributions to the Craven Herald.

Palestine action call Sir - So it’s out in the open. The prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, has declared he has no intention of recognising the right of Palestinians to their own state.

You may have watched, feeling helpless, as Israel has illegally established settlements on Palestinian land, turned Gaza into a wasteland, deployed its army in the West Bank, detained children without trial. You may feel now is the time to act.

One thing you can do is to decide not to buy Israeli goods. There is a growing international movement to boycott goods produced or traded by Israeli companies. The aim is to put pressure on Israeli companies, institutions and the government to see that if they want to be part of the international community, they have to abide by international law.

For most of us that means looking at labels and avoiding Israeli herbs, fruit and vegetables sold in supermarkets. More than that, writing a note or speaking to the manager to explain why you are not buying these goods. It’s a small step in the face of a huge injustice but do what you can.

Annie Neligan Pye Busk Bentham People so helpful I have recently had to start and use a wheelchair, as I have lost my mobility. It has been a steep, and expensive learning curve!

What has really encouraged me, has been the helpfulness of so many people; opening doors, getting things off shelves for me, shopkeepers bending over backwards to help, bus drivers being very patient with me, and taxi drivers having taxis with ramps. Skipton is not the easiest of places, and so many shops have steps into them.

The only real problem I have had is on the train. They will allow manual and electric wheelchairs, but not scooters, although my small one is the same size as my electric wheelchair.

Mrs H Irvine Skipton Demolition question Sir - There was no greater betting certainty at the Cheltenham Festival than of anyone answering the question which was recently presented by the former Shortbank, Skipton lad, Malcolm Jarvis – now of Ilkeston – the question being... “Who was responsible for demolishing the historic Elsey Croft Barn?”

Nigh on a thousand years of history and a structure which had stood rock-solid for all those centuries suddenly disappeared almost overnight.

My photographer pal arrived just in time to capture at least a sizeable piece of the historic building, including those Norman columns, albeit after the initial destruction had already started.

I do reiterate that the structure was initially rock-solid for – as Shortbank lads growing up on good old fashioned social skills – we knew just about divot in every field for miles around and, besides all else, I recall sheltering in that barn amid a violent thunderstorm whereby not a single drop of rain seeped through. Some of my growing up pals had also slept in it.

Elsey Croft Barn and its surrounding pasture was of course, for many years, a magnet for school parties on history field trips and where the entire location accorded a classic insight as to how the local dwellers in Norman times lived and worked the land which still contains ridge and furrow and is part of the ancient Skibeden township.

Indeed some historians will contend that the barn even dates back to Roman time for, amongst the ground level rubble which still exists – at least as I write – there are mineral materials not natural in these parts, and of the same substance for which the foundations of the nearby Roman Road were laid.

However, with the main structure, alas, now demolished another piece of Skipton’s once proud history has now been obliterated.

Thus, in that particular location, basically all we are now left with is Mr Jarvis’ question - who was responsible for the demolition?

Roger Ingham Aldersley Avenue Skipton Making merry thanks Sir - I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following hotels, pubs and restaurants for their support of ‘Merry Go Round’ on February 20 by providing a three-course meal for 250 people, who had each course at a different venue: The Boars Head, Long Preston, The Craven Arms, Giggleswick, The Falcon Manor, Settle, The Gamecock Austwick, The Harts Heads, Giggleswick, The Lion, Settle, The New Inn, Clapham, The Royal Oak, Settle, Ravenous, Settle and The Talbot, Settle.

Thanks to them this event was a resounding success.

Michael Cullingworth President Settle Rotary Club ‘Facts’ on economy Sir - The statistics keep being brought up by the two Labour Party members, Mr Birks and Mr Holland, and we all know about the use of statistics - the same ones can often be used in different ways to support both sides of an argument.

However, the facts speak for themselves, with the UK economy being in its best position for years.

I fail to understand how anyone could consider voting for the two Eds in May to control the future of our country’s economy, with their past abysmal economic record, especially with the prospect of Alec Salmond’s control looming in the background.

Richard Colley Park Avenue Skipton MP ‘true to his word’ Sir - The letter from the UKIP candidate in last week’s paper is misleading.

Julian Smith did indeed discuss forcefully voice his Euroscepticism at the hustings that selected him as Conservative Parliamentary candidate and has been true to this commitment to doing everything he could secure an in/out referendum on Europe for the constituents of Skipton and Ripon.

In 2013 and in 2014 (2014 and 2015) he voted for bills to secure an EU referendum - which didn’t succeed due to a lack of support from Lib Dem and Labour MPs. This will now be in the Conservative Party manifesto and delivered in Government, if there is a Conservative Government after May 7.

Mr Henderson is aware but also does not mention that as well as lobbying hard for this vote, Julian Smith is co-chair of the Fresh Start group of Conservative MPs who have been working in the UK and Europe to propose specific repatriation of powers including the removal of incentives for EU migrants to move to the UK for benefits, scrapping the term ‘ever-closer union’ in the EUs statutes and bringing greater power for national Parliaments.

Our MP has been more than true to his word and is a member of the only party that can deliver a referendum. Mr Henderson on the other hand, whilst purporting to want a referendum on the EU is encouraging people to vote against the only party that can deliver it - thus increasing the chance that Ed Miliband, who refuses to make a commitment to a European vote, gets the keys to Downing Street.

Ann Sheridan Keasden Clapham Help with finances Sir - The Budget will no doubt prompt renewed debate – and disagreement – on the impact any economic recovery is having on real people.

Regardless of the politics, the fact remains there are millions of people in the UK who are genuinely struggling financially. We hear on a daily basis of families having to make choices that most of us would find incomprehensible just to meet ends meet.

So, amidst any discussion on whether the Budget is or isn’t going to help, it’s doubly important that people who are affected by financial hardship know that there is practical and immediate help available – help with understanding benefits entitlements or seeking a grant to deal with an unexpected and adverse event.

Charities like Turn2us can provide practical and simple help in understanding what financial support is available to those who are struggling. Anyone who is worried about their situation can find us at www.turn2us.org.uk.

Simon Hopkins Turn2us Shepherds Bush Road London