10:10am Saturday 9th January 2010
Sir – Coun Marcia Turner (Letters, December 23) states councillors are not to receive a basic allowance of £4,400 but a mere £4,200, thereby taking a reduction in allowances. This is taking the term “economical with the truth” to a new low.
Many – not all – councillors received this year an allowance of £3,800 plus an IT allowance of £600 for computers etc.
As this IT allowance has gone on for some years, the remuneration committee felt those who wanted to purchase IT equipment had been adequately compensated. So it was removed but, as a sop, the basic allowance was increased by over 10 per cent to £4,200 pa.
The cost of councillors’ allowances for 2008/9 is more than £166,000. In 2001 it was under £32,000 – an increase of over 500 per cent in eight years and enough to keep the town hall running.
This district council has closed public toilets without a referendum; is moving to fortnightly bin collections without asking the public and is contemplating selling Skipton and Settle Town Halls.
The reason is simple. In 2008 the money paid to employees was £8.1 million; in 2009 it was £9.6 million – much more than their total income. But this council has decided that, yet again, councillors should receive more money for their efforts – up to 40 per cent increases in some cases.
I have never seen a more sickening sight than a leader voting himself a 25 per cent increase. But there is one possible answer. Doncaster Council has had a bad reputation but that seems to be coming to a fast reversal with the new mayor, Peter Davies.
On his first morning he sliced his salary from £73,000 to £30,000 – some cut! He then closed the council’s newspaper for “peddling politics on the rates”. Remind you of anywhere? Then he pressed ahead with plans to cut the number of councillors from 63 to 21, saving taxpayers £800,000, saying: “If 100 senators can run the USA, I don’t see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster.”
Doncaster is a £586-million-a-year authority, Craven around £7-million-a-year. Peter Davies has ordered budget cuts and a reduction in council tax. He axed the mayor’s chauffeur-driven car and wants to cut all “non-jobs”, such as platinum-pensioned “community cohesion officers”. He has been praised by the Audit Commission for his leadership, unlike Craven which has been damned for the second year running.
So the question is this: do we in Craven want to carry on with a council which, in my view, is unfit for purpose, or is it time we found a mayor? Craven Ratepayers’ Action Group thinks that is long overdue.
If you think an elected mayor might be the answer, please write to the Craven Herald. If you don’t then you’ll have to put up with the council you have and the ever-poorer value for money they’ll give you.
Alan Perrow, chairman, Craven Ratepayers’ Action Group, Bannister Walk, Cowling
Sir - The highway authority’s response to criticism is pathetic and predictable; churning out statistics is otiose and reminiscent of communist Russia.
It’s patently obvious that the amount of salt and labour allocated is miserably inadequate. Anecdotal reports of no gritting, ludicrously gritting only on hills and leaving centres of towns and villages under a blanket of snow for days on end so the beleaguered shops are starved of customers are too numerous to be discounted.
Is it not about time the grossly-overpaid chief executives and heads of department are culled? Let them go into the profit-making sector to which they compare their responsibilities and salaries. Few, if any, have been there.
They are unemployable at anything like their current remuneration in any but the public sector. If our so-called representatives are not willing to do this, heave them out. It is not only in this area.
No sooner has some jobsworth elsewhere come up with a scheme to improve (save money for wages and expenses and reduce services) than it spreads like wildfire throughout the country to the point where the public services, particularly local government, resemble a banana republic where nothing works. This will carry on until ratepayers put aside party allegiance and vote for councillors who are willing and capable of running something.
Andrew Mills, Stainforth (full address supplied)
Sir - I felt I had to reply to the letter of complaint from Patricia Mason (Letters, December 31).
I am not doubting that she met with difficult conditions in that steep area of Skipton, but here in Grassington and surrounding areas we have had far more snow and we have had nothing but admiration for the local contractor, who worked solidly for the week up to Christmas, ploughing and gritting to keep all the main roads clear, then wherever possible dealing with the side roads with a smaller vehicle.
Setting off in the early hours, the lads worked through until late at night, getting little sleep before starting again.
With the greatest respect, Stephen Garnett’s picture could have been anywhere at the height of the snowstorms, and he obviously got through to take it!
Carol Whitworth, Chapel Fold, Grassington
Sir - Immediately after the winter storms are over an inquest should be held on how problems encountered could be met.
The county council would be wise to invite suggestions on this. Its overall strategy (major roads and motorways first) is obviously right, but it does mean that villages are cut off and those which have had the benefit of a bypass have now been the most disadvantaged since they are further from the main road.
I suggest a relatively simple and inexpensive way of coping with this.
The county has a list of individuals with tractors (mainly farmers) who are called on after a few days to clear the very minor roads. It should be possible for the chairman of a parish council to call on these, so that a one-lane clearance could be made soon after the first big fall.
It would then be possible for carers to get to their patients and for people to use buses where they exist, thus coping with the major problem. It should then be possible for cars to be moved.
Much of the recent misery could have been avoided if such a scheme had been in force. It would then be quite reasonable for the parish to meet the cost.
Frank Pedley, Wood Close, Gisburn Road, Hellifield
Sir - During the severe weather (especially here in the Settle area), while we cannot congratulate North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) for its non-gritting of many roads and footpaths during the first snow falls, we should give credit to the men of Horton Landscaping with their little quad bikes, who have tried to keep on top of the situation in difficult conditions up here.
Credit should also go to the postal personnel (at their busiest time of the year), milkmen and especially community nurses, doctors, home carers and the meals on wheels service, who must have ‘battled’ through snow and ice to deliver these vital services.
Please note: to the people who decided where and when to grit, these are vital services for the most vulnerable members of the community.
Also, the Craven District Council car parks have been like ice-rinks and very dangerous, although some clearance and gritting has been done on these today (January 4).
Taking the NYCC salt depot away from Settle was a very backward step and surely a false economy, as we now have to wait for salt – and snowploughs – coming from further afield ie Skipton.
Mrs Helen Reid, Scar View, Settle
Sir – We have passionate and committed people in Skipton who are trying to improve its events and festivals.
This effort would continue to help maintain growth in our unique market town with all its attractions. All this work, though, is in vain if visitors can’t park.
I am appalled that planners refused the proposed extra car parking at the castle. If visitors can’t park they will stop coming. Extra car parking would also allow the council to consider implementing residential parking in certain congested streets.
Are these planners happy for Skipton to join the long list of ghost towns and not the visitor destination is deserves to be?
Ken Wood, Salisbury Street, Skipton
Sir - Before Christmas, we had been walking from school to St Mary’s Church in Embsay to practise and perform our Christmas play.
Along Kirk Lane there was a lot of dog poo all over the pavement, from different dogs. This meant that we had to walk around it and, sometimes, we even had to walk on the road because we didn’t want to get dog poo on our shoes or our costumes. This was dangerous because we may have been hurt by a car.
We know dog owners should pick dog poo up, put it in a bag and then in a dog poo bin – and most of us are only four years old.
We would like to remind dog owners in Embsay to clean up after their dogs. We don’t like stepping in dog poo, getting it on our costumes or having to walk in the road.
Class 1, Embsay CE (VC) Primary School, Pasture Road, Embsay
Sir - May I, through your paper, thank everyone who gave generously to the Co-operative Store in Gargrave regarding the RNID (Royal National Institute For The Deaf).
Carol Eggleston, Jubilee Croft, Long Preston
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