ANDY Brown is advocating more money for the NHS to spend on drugs to treat cancer patients – Investment needed (Craven Herald, July 16).

I remain to be convinced this is a sensible way forward. The record to date is not very encouraging.

A recent article in The Lancet commented: “Current strategies to control cancer are demonstrably not working.

“Already one of the world’s leading causes of death, the annual death toll from cancer has risen by almost 40 per cent since 1990 and this rate of increase is set to continue. WHO predicts deaths from cancer will rise from the current level of around eight million lives a year to more than 13 million by 2030.”

With reference to drugs, there is widespread concern in the medical profession about the very high charges levied by the companies. In the USA, the average price of one year of treatment with a new cancer drug now exceeds $100,000, and the benefits of many of these therapies – often improvement in survival time of weeks or months – do not appear commensurate with their prices. It is very common for new drugs to be introduced that are no more effective than those already available but are much more expensive. There is genuine concern the drug companies exploit the systems to overcharge by huge amounts.

In 2004-5, the House of Commons Health Committee examined the drug industry in detail and found its influence was enormous and out of control. It was revealed it is an industry that buys influence over doctors, charities, patient groups, journalists and politicians, and whose regulation is sometimes weak or ambiguous.

Even more worrying, companies are allowed to test their own products. Hence the trials are designed in such ways that they minimise the detection and reporting of harms and maximise evidence of benefits. They are permitted to exclude patients who are most likely to have adverse drug reactions, while including those most likely to experience benefit. Therefore, drugs can be marketed as safe and more effective than they are in the real world.

What is even more disturbing is the extent of the illegal activities of the pharmaceutical companies, as shown by the penalties levied on them by the authorities in the USA. Between 1991 and 2010, there were at least 165 settlements for offences, which included illegal off-label promotion of pharmaceuticals and deliberately overcharging.

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic about drugs, it is salutary to discover that they are the third leading cause of deaths in the USA after heart disease and cancer.

The sources of the information presented here are all available on my blog at vernerwheelock.com and I can also recommend the appropriately titled book, Deadly Medicines And Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare, written by the distinguished Danish scientist, Peter Gøtzsche, which ought to be required reading for all politicians.

VERNER WHEELOCK, Binns Lane Farm, Glusburn.

LIKE many people in more rural regions of Britain, I have to put up with a low broadband speed of 2mbps download and 0.9mbps upload speed.

Yet, when I look on the official sources, broadband speed in Gargrave is given as 17mbps, a huge contradiction to what you can get. This is only available within a very short distance of the exchange, with special transfer technology over copper wires.

You might think 4G mobile broadband could be the answer, yet not so. Again, official source maps show that in a field close to Gargrave you can get 4G from some suppliers, yet it reverts to 3G as soon as you hit buildings.

The Government has not yet delivered on any of its promises about data access speeds that are real world and available generally.

ROGER BELL, Skipton Road, Gargrave.

NO MP, either local or Europe, has had the courage to ask “where is the spoil from the underground workings going to be dumped and at what cost?”.

The cost must be balanced against its production. If it costs too much, then leave it there.

JEFF BILBROUGH, Hebden Hall Park, Hebden.

ON my recent visit to this year’s Yorkshire Show, I was proud to see the vast number of entrants and prize winners from the Craven area, particularly the livestock classes.

I would like to congratulate the prize winners from all exhibitor sections.

ROBERT MASON, Craven District Council chairman.

FOLLOWING last week’s letter from FWE Manby about the growing proliferation of cars and vans parked across the cycle lane along Gargrave Road (comments with which I totally agree), it also needs to be said the design of the car park at Keelham is itself a major cause of problems – Cycle lane blocked (Craven Herald, July 23).

It certainly deters us from shopping there all that often. Once you drive into a bay, and if you find no available space, your only option is to then drive out and all the way back to the top, where you have to then loop around so as to try a lower bay. In so doing, you are forced to turn against traffic coming from both the left and ahead of you at the point where there is also a pedestrian crossing.

It’s no wonder more and more people park on the main road opposite the shop. If only part of the field on that side could be used for additional parking along with a pedestrian crossing.

And as for the steep slope up out of Keelham’s car park, I sincerely hope Keelham will have a first class gritting and de-icing regime when the winter comes.

ALAN STURGESS, Eshton Road, Gargrave.

I REFER to your feature on the Lafarge Tarmac new rail link – Project on track to clear up roads with an old link Craven Herald, July 16).

I attended the extremely interesting presentation at the Friends Meeting House and learnt a deal more about the new rail connection. My understanding is that once products are travelling more than 30 miles from the quarry, it becomes increasingly advantageous to use Network Rail.

Obviously, the attraction to Settle residents is that it removes a significant number of lorries from a town, which relies largely for its existence on tourism.

What is happening now is history repeating itself. Stainforth, Helwith Bridge, Horton in Ribblesdale and Ribblehead have all in the past been rail connected.

While at the meeting a suggestion was made that seems to have a deal of sense in it. That is to have a one-way system for the remaining lorries using quarries in North Ribblesdale. This assumes they are travelling east on the A65 towards Settle, they continue along the length of the bypass, approaching the town over Buckhaw Brow before turning left after crossing the River Ribble. Granted, this is further and over the hill, but they would at that stage be travelling empty.

Return would then be made, as now, through the town centre, where their progress would be eased by reversing the traffic priority at the ‘narrows’ before entering the Market Square.

It seems to be pretty well universally accepted the priority here is set up the wrong way round. Reversal would only involve changing signage and road marking.

The benefits would be less stopping of loaded wagons at this bottleneck but, more particularly, halving the number of quarry lorry movements through the narrow streets, either via the Market Square or past the primary school and Booths supermarket.

BOB SWALLOW, Townhead Avenue, Settle.

I AGREE with the concerns expressed by FWE Manby in last week’s Craven Herald about the sudden rash of mass car parking along Gargrave Road near the entrance to Aireville Park – Cycle land blocked.

The cycle lane is now useless as a result.

I raised this with North Yorkshire County Council earlier this month.

I was informed there is nothing they or the police are able to do about this as they say no obstruction is taking place, and it is a broken white line and not a solid line.

It seems to me there is clear obstruction of the cycle lane and, if the authorities say they can do nothing, then I ask the ‘offenders’ to reconsider their unthinking and unsightly obstruction of this cycle lane.

CLLR JOHN DAWSON, Craven District and Skipton Town Councillor, Skipton North, Gainsborough Court, Skipton.

IN response to Mohammed Shabir apologising for the interruption to the peace of the Broughton Road community regarding the temporary mosque marquee, it is very easy to apologise from a position of taking what you want and being allowed to keep what you take by the local authority – Sincere apologies (Craven Herald, July 23).

The condescension of that local authority to say “You’ve put up with the disturbance to your life and sleep for 10 months, you can cope with another six weeks”.

I am tired of being apologised to and patronised.

Who compensates me for the time I have had to take off work, annual leave and sick leave just to be able to recover some of the sleep I have been deprived of? As it stands I am ill, I am dizzy when I close my eyes and need to take time away from work to rest during daylight hours to try to keep working.

The only apology that can be accepted is when the marquee is removed and the land restored, and no more danger of having an inconsistent night’s sleep.

Craven District Council should also be held to account for allowing this situation to continue and foment disagreement in a community I have enjoyed living in for more than 20 years.

I dearly hope relations can be restored to the good levels prior to this episode. I do find it difficult to actually fall out with people. I take you as you are and respect your rights, I only ask for that respect in return. So far, the committee of the Jamia Masjid and Craven District Council planning have displayed no respect for me or my neighbours.

NM FOXTON, Pendle Street, Skipton.

I READ with interest the article regarding the giant hogweed – Giant hogweed is spreading its poison (Craven Herald, July 23).

There does not appear to be any present threat from this specific plant in the Silsden area where I live, however a plant that does seem to have established itself is Japanese knotweed.

It appears to have taken root in two places in Silsden – just prior to the confluence of the two becks (near to the post office) and on some spare land opposite where the new Aldi supermarket now stands.

I have only recently noticed the knotweed near Aldi, however I first spotted the knotweed in the centre of Silsden some two years ago.

The council has recently treated the outbreak here with glyphosate, which initially appeared to have promising results, but the plant seems to be coming back with ever greater strength.

ROGER SMITH, Keighley Road, Silsden.

FURTHER to your article in the Craven Herald dated July 23, the Aire Valley is certainly not the only place where the giant hogweed has taken over – Giant hogweed is spreading its poison.

The road edges on both Glusburn Moor and Cononley Moor are choked with this toxic plant.

In a few weeks, people are going to be picking blackberries, bilberries and sloes, it is only a matter of time before someone accidentally comes into contact with this poisonous plant and is badly hurt by it.

The Environment Agency needs to act fast before more damage is done.

BRENDA SHUTTLEWORTH, Wellhouse Farm, Glusburn Moor.