Library changes are just ‘saving money’ Sir - I am not surprised but deeply saddened that North Yorkshire County Council are pursuing their policy of dismantling what once was a good library service.

I would ask them not to add insult to injury by implying that community libraries are providing as good a service as well as value for money. This is not the case, it is purely about saving money.

Gargrave has a community library and is fortunate to have a committed group of volunteers. However, they spend a lot of time and energy trying to maintain the service.

All well and good for now, but this commitment is finite and when they run out of steam, what happens then?

I am pleased to see the letter in the Craven Herald (November 20) and hope that people in Skipton will support the library and its staff.

Is it really too much to ask that it remains a proper library with real staff given that Embsay, Gargrave, Cross Hills, Settle, Ingleton, and Bentham Libraries are or may become community libraries?

J Birks Neville Road Gargrave A ‘scandalous’ plan Sir - I would like to endorse the sentiments of Ruth Howard-Birt (Letters, November 20).

It is scandalous what the county are planning for our library.

Make no mistake they are determined to staff our library with volunteers.

I attended the drop-in consultation at Skipton Library last Thursday, and talked to a young lady who informed me she is to be the Volunteer Co-ordinator for the county.

Her title speaks volumes. No matter what we the reading commoners say, the decision is carved in stone.

I was told that there is need to save money, but how come they can find the money to employ a co-ordinator ?

I am a vociferous opponent of this scheme, which is intended to remove from our library many qualified staff, who many of us have known for years, and know them as friends.

It is worth pointing out, that the ladies who attended to hear our concerns were in fact recruiting volunteers.

In closing, I would like to thank the people who volunteered. Thank you for making it easier for the council to sack our friends.

Derek Nadin Hurrs Road Skipton A ‘disgraceful’ idea Below are two letters written by pupils at Parish Church Primary bSchool, Skipton, to Hazel Smith, team leader at Skipton Library: Dear Ms Hazel Smith - It has come to my attention that the council are planning to make Skipton Library only run by volunteers. This is a fact I wish was not true. If this was a joke it would be extremely poor in taste. That is why I am horrified at the choice the council has made.

The reasons why I am against the library being run by volunteers are many in number so I will list only a few of them in this letter.

Firstly, I have been a member of the library service for many years and I thoroughly enjoy going to the library. The staff are very familiar with me and sometimes when they get a new book they let me borrow it and see what I think of it. The staff also organise clubs for children, usually in their own time.

Volunteers have also helped the staff on organising clubs like ‘Songwriting’ or ‘The Pink Fluffy Ketchup Covered Flower Ponies’, also known as ‘TPFKCFP’ for short. In ‘Songwriting’ children get to try and write songs about the things which are important to them. In ‘TPFKCFP’ children can unlock their creative side by drawing comics.

The staff also arranged a visit by Doctor Who author Mark Wright, who sold and signed his Doctor Who book.

There is also storytime at the library for young children and the staff have also organised boo review nights where children can come and recommend books for each other.

Everything organised by the library staff has become a success.

As you can see, having paid library staff is good for the success of the library. However, if you depend on volunteers for the upkeep of the library and no volunteers come forward then the library will be shut down and you will be depriving Skipton of the most powerful thing there is, which is knowledge!

I urge you to change your decision and leave Skipton Library the way it is. With that I now will not try to change your decision any more and what you now decide will be of your own free will.

Zayyan Mahmood, 10 years Dear Ms Hazel Smith - It has come to my attention that the council are planning to replace the driven, passionate librarians with unqualified volunteers, who don’t know anything about books and being a librarian.

Librarians at Skipton Library have so much background knowledge on books. In past experiences of mine, I’ve wanted a certain genre of text and they have recommended a fabulous book.

There are many clubs and activities that children in the community benefit from, these would not be possible without the dedicated librarians at Skipton Library.

The community are brought together by the library, and the welcoming staff that work there; replacing these wonderful people with volunteers is a disgraceful idea.

I’m adamantly opposed to this change, and I, and the whole community, are deeply against this.

Luc Ellison, 10 years Mr Carnegie writes Sir - I don’t write many letters these days - after all I’ve been dead for nearly 100 years - but I’m still here in spirit, over Skipton Library entrance with my Skipton Mechanics friends, watching you book lovers go back and forth.

As you may know, I’ve made a few dollars over here in Philadelphia and I’d like to think I’ve invested well for future library users.

I’m concerned, however, that North Yorkshire County Council doesn’t seem to share that vision. Yes, I appreciate that financial considerations are important - after all, I didn’t make my millions without being a canny Scot.

However, I’ve found that short-sighted decisions don’t make for long-term community growth.

Well, Mr Carnegie, as a volunteer with the Home Library Service and a regular library user, I can assure you that your investment continues in the skilful hands of our present librarians.

Their knowledge and expertise in sourcing a never-ending supply of books/audio-books/periodicals, etc, for home users of library services in particular, is amazing. This skill, and their ability to promote vibrant and thriving community venues, cannot be replicated by volunteers.

Having been offered in the past ‘an enhanced volunteer experience’ I would question the ethics of expecting the librarians to train me up to do their jobs (for free), and then have their working hours reduced or even face redundancy as a result.

This denigrates their professional training and jeopardises their livelihoods. It hardly encourages young people to take up the profession - train three years to supervise volunteers?

Community spirit and getting involved is vital in today’s economic climate, but not at the expense of reducing our core public services to an unacceptable level.

As Carnegie might be saying: “Let’s not throw the bairn out with the bathwater.”

I hope that this public consultation really does take into account not only the views of library users (most of whom are council taxpayers, funding such services), but also those of the library staff, who as front-line workers have the experience to decide the future of our libraries.

I also hope that we can stay true to the selfless vision of Andrew Carnegie and the generous Skipton Mechanics.

Christine Littler Colne Road Glusburn (Editor’s note: The Scottish-born American philanthropist and millionaire Andrew Carnegie gave away large amounts of money to help found libraries, including that in Skipton.) Opinions ‘overruled’ Sir - Last year the government scrapped local planning controls for the change from agricultural buildings to commercial use.

Members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority decided to retain planning control for this in order to prevent the impact of development on our outstanding countryside. It was important for local residents to have a say and they upheld this principle.

Now there is local opinion and there is local official’s opinion. I have spoken at planning committees on a few occasions and I have yet to be on a winning side, and last week I spoke on behalf of our parish meeting to oppose the development of Stirton’s historic Tithe Barn to an office block and car park.

This exceptional barn is hundreds of years old and it stands in open countryside at the edge of our beautiful hamlet. Residents had a lot of concerns.

The extra cars will present a danger to our many vulnerable road users and to our secondary school children on such a narrow lane with no pavement. Barn owls were known to to have used the site. We have already lost eight derelict old farm buildings in this hamlet alone during the last 40 years and the time had come when the owls would have nowhere to go.

No one thought the building should just be left to fall down, but we didn’t want an office block and overspill car parking on to a dangerous single-track lane.

Unbelievably not one authority member present at the planning committee objected to turning this historically important barn into white-collar employment use. They all welcomed it and said it was a good thing.

There was no understanding or sympathy for a Dales hamlet remaining primarily for agriculture, the pleasure of walkers and endangered wildlife.

Now I do not believe this office block will create any jobs, rather it will take them from elsewhere and will put them in an inappropriate place, but anyway there are plenty of empty shops and offices just a mile away in Skipton. How many Tithe Barns are there?

I had thought that the planning process was meant to include meaningful public consultation, but the authority just overruled the considerable public opposition and laid down the decision according to its own wishes. I think the arrogance of this attitude of officials is breathtaking. People talk about a remote central elite. Well, I think the elite is alive and well, fed by bureaucracy, far closer to home and sucking out the lifeblood of localism here and now.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the planning process. It is my belief that at present real local opinion counts for nothing in local planning decisions because authorities make all the decisions for us. No doubt we cannot be trusted with our own ideas.

Pity the poor local resident whose voice is silenced by the crushing weight of officious officialdom. It remains to be seen how long this can go on without change.

Mrs Alison Griffin Bog Lane Stirton Closing town down?

Sir - I wrote last week to North Yorkshire highways as town councillor for Skipton North in the following terms: “As town councillor for Skipton North, I would ask even at this late stage that you defer the closure of Brewery Lane, Skipton, until the New Year. You plan to close from Monday next (November 24) for two weeks.

“In light of the current closure of Jerry Croft off the High Street, this closure will add to the already chaotic top end of the High Street as all we regular users of Brewery Lane will have to divert down the High Street.

“All this is happening in the run-up to Christmas. It sometimes seems as if our councils are seeking to close Skipton down for business when decisions such as this are made. Please reconsider.

“I would add that the proposed two-way system at the bottom of Brewery Lane is a recipe for disaster.”

I have had two replies merely saying the closure is not for long and saying sorry for the inconvenience.

Cllr John Dawson Gainsborough Court Skipton Public apology call Sir - So where are we now?

Well, Paul Shevlin, the chief executive (of Craven District Council) did personally come and see us all last Wednesday. So many genuine thanks to him. It was positive and productive conversation, with our suggestions for some form of support and reparation in the New Year for current lost business.

An admission, although not yet public, of significant mistakes having been made - great too.

The project goes ahead as planned though, but what then about income loss?

Well, we have made some suggestions about promotion of the Jerry Croft/Albion Yard and Rope Walk area, with potentially a BID (Business Improvement District) business development bid next year - great. Just hope we are consulted and involved at the heart of it? Hoping to hear from Skipton BID about this.

Meantime a public apology from the project manager, Hazel Smith, and Paul Ellis, her boss as director of services, who are the officers responsible for the mistakes, would be a gesture of common decency at least, given their ridiculous behaviour at the meeting we had with them last Tuesday. I’ll not hold my breath on that one.

Thanks also to council leader Richard Foster, who eventually got back to me to suggest I speak with another councillor!

This demonstrates that rural councillors on Craven District do not give a damn about Skipton - the district’s ‘capital’. As to the town, or is that ‘clown’, councillors with dual mandate on Craven District and the Town Council- all absent from availability except one decent one - Cllr Andy Solloway. So not so much lions led by donkeys but mules led by asses. When are the people of Skipton going to wake up?

Despite the obstacles - we are having reasonable trade but not as good last year - our first as a new business - and not as projected, but we’ll see if we are still in business after March next year and what economic development assistance the council comes up. According to Paul Ellis, they do economic development!

They run a car park - not it seems for public service and traffic management - but for huge profit! Just like the ‘farmed-out’ traffic wardens from Harrogate who hound the citizenery. You heard it here. So a halving of car parking charges should definitely be on the table then to match Ilkley. Why do we pay double?.

No Mr Ellis, businesses do economic development, not the the council. The council is meant to be a public service and its officers public servants (look it up Mr Ellis) and be mindful of the public, not riding roughshod and thoughtlessly over them. We pay your wages remember.

Hoping this will be my last word on the subject and a public apology is made.

So until the New Year and the good news to support us recover and stay in business, a Merry Christmas to you all. Re the New Year, Craven District Councillors and officers take note - we forgive but we don’t forget.

James Paton Director, Relish Skipton Albion Yard Skipton Give it some thought Sir - At the recent council planning meeting concerning an industrial turbine at Wigglesworth, councillor Robert Mason responded to my statement on behalf of objectors (as you reported), “many people who move to the country expect it to be quiet, but it is not”.

I hope he wasn’t thinking of me, the only individual objector there, because, unless he is over 72 years old, he hasn’t lived in the countryside for as long as I have. Better to think what you say rather than say what you think.

Roderic Mather East Thornber Wigglesworth Having their cake Sir - I too am pleased that young jobless figures have fallen, but the remainder of Mr Hopkins article leave much to be desired. This week Mr Hopkins’ boss, David Cameron, writing in the Guardian, remarked on the “red lights on the dashboard of the global economy”.

After 4.5 years of austerity government the Guardian’s columnist Polly Toynbee also remarked that: “…when global tremors threaten a Conservative government, it’s not their fault. But when the greatest global crash in generations strikes a Labour government, the cause is Gordon Brown overspending on tax credits for the low paid.” The Conservatives seem to want to have their cake and eat it.

David Cameron has said on numerous occasions that: “We’re all in this together.” Yet the news reveals that the Conservative government have fought, unsuccessfully it seems (at what cost to the taxpayer, I wonder?) to retain the excessive bonuses paid to London City bankers, who are the real culprits of the financial crash.

Yet his welfare Rottweiler IDS presides over a regime that forces the opposite end of the payroll spectrum to pay a bedroom tax or move. Sounds even-handed to me.

Roy Harvey Carleton Vested interests Sir - I see that Julian Smith, our current, hopefully ‘soon to be replaced’ Member of Parliament, has voted with the government yet again, against a well-supported House of Commons amendment to start freeing up local publicans from the long standing cartel of big brewers and PubCos.

Not only are the publicans tied to exorbitant rents, they are also forced to buy all their beer from a single brewery at inflated prices.

Thankfully, 284 MPs from all parties defeated the government on 259 votes. This really is the government of big business and vested interests. Let’s hope this change allows some of our local pubs to survive.

John Pope Skipton