Cut ‘bureaucracy’, not buses in Dales

The Grassington Community Minibus is already struggling to find enough volunteers to turn out, day after day, in all weathers, to run dial-a-ride services for local people.

What will happen to the hundreds of visitors to Upper Wharfedale when they find they can’t use the local bus because they haven’t booked a seat 24 hours before, or local people trying to get into Grassington when they find that every seat is taken up by a party of walkers? If you live in the Dales and are too young or too old to drive a car, you might as well move out now.

Tourists are the lifeblood of the area, but the clear message from North Yorkshire County Council is that visitors are not welcome in the Dales unless they bring their own car to help choke up the roads.

As Cllr Heseltine argues, rural areas like the Yorkshire Dales urgently need a new deal from Government, with investment in jobs, affordable housing and decent rural transport - now an absolute priority.

Good, well-marketed public transport networks can meet the needs of locals and visitors alike, at relatively low cost, as the popular Sunday DalesBus network demonstrates. The excellent hourly Sunday Witch Way 872 Skipton-Grassington bus actually makes a profit.

If money has to be saved, it should come from County Hall bureaucracy, leaving local communities, users and bus operators to work together to develop more imaginative solutions than pathetic County Hall car-share tokenism.

Colin Speakman Friends of DalesBus Ilkley ‘Wrecking’ tactics Sir - I was alarmed to read your front page article (Call to take over buses as cuts bite, March 21) detailing our Conservative-controlled county council’s call to local communities to run public transport services in more rural parts of Craven. How long will it be before we are told to empty our own bins at Skibeden and form working parties to repair our own streets and roads?

In future when someone asks why there are no buses to take people to work/school/visit friends and family/shop... all the basic needs really, the county council will reply: “We had to rebalance the urban-rural spend.”

That translates to: “I’m sorry but millions were spent on keeping failed bankers in their jobs, £80 billion (IofEA estimate) was spent on digging up vast swathes of the countryside to send a white elephant very fast train between Birmingham, London, Manchester and Leeds, plus many more billions thrown away on new nuclear power stations that weren’t needed (it’s far cheaper to invest in energy-saving and renewable energies of course - a policy akin to putting a jumper on, ‘waste not want not’ as my mum says)...,” never mind the disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money on PFI projects, but unfortunately the Cons/Libs/Labs all support PFI.

We need to reconnect the dots. It’s all well and good for people to vote for Independents at local elections but they don’t have any connection to Westminster where the power lies, and all that their spokesman can tamely say last week was: “Come on Mr Cameron...you financially abuse (Craven) at your electoral peril.” Why on earth would the Conservative government suddenly take notice of his warning now? They ignored it for the last five years with the Lib Dems’ help and still won an outright majority.

Labour’s candidate (Letters, May 21) wants ‘fairness and equality addressed’ but as life became much less fair and more unequal for many of us after 13 years of the last Labour government he’s obviously in the wrong party if that’s what he wants.

You may say that the economy is booming. I would say for whom? Statistics indicate that the average wage is falling, queues for food handouts are lengthening and more people are on zero hours contracts, others are doing two jobs to make ends meet. Meanwhile we are being asked to run our own libraries and drive our buses. What next?

I would like to thank all those people that voted for me in the recent local elections. I was not elected this time but I will stand again as many local Green candidates will. Congratulations again to James Paton.

While there is much that we can do and are doing locally already, I would argue that taking seats from the Westminster parties at local level and building that success into representation at Westminster as Caroline Lucas has so successfully done will be the quickest way to bring about a Greener and fairer society, where the countryside is not ruined by development (did I mention fracking?) and the economy is run with common sense and prudence, nurturing the planet for the future, not wrecking it for short-term ideological gain.

David Noland Brougham Street Skipton l Eye on the Dales: Page 26 Boat buyer’s thanks Sir - Having recently purchased a 58ft narrowboat from Pennine Cruisers, of Skipton, I would like to say a huge thank you through your letters page to the Clarke family. Special thanks to Ian, Zoe and Wayne who all went out of their way to make sure I was happy with everything.

I am sure anyone thinking of hiring or buying a boat from this company will not be disappointed. Their honesty and professional approach are second to none.

Barry Hart Narrowboat, Patricia Jean Day for big hearts Sir - When I first saw a photograph of the little girl who was to become my daughter, she leapt straight in to my heart. This is why, on June 19, I am supporting ‘Big Heart Day’. The campaign is run by the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF), who works tirelessly for the many thousands of children in care across the UK who need to be found a loving family.

Children are at the heart of what BAAF does. You too can do something to show your ‘big heart’ and help the charity ensure that no child waits longer than necessary for a loving and secure family whether through adoption or fostering.

There are lots of fun things you can do to help raise much-needed funds – perhaps you can get your employers and colleagues to take part and show your big hearts together. There are lots of ideas and more information at http://www.baaf.org.uk/join-our-big-heart-day So please join me and support BAAF’s ‘Big Heart Day’ Campaign on Friday, June 19.

Clare Grogan, BAAF Patron and adoptive mum British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF)