Letters to editor

We have just had a General Election in which the people exercised their democratic right to elect a Government who had promised years of austerity. Having protected many parts of their budget, it was obvious services such as the police service would bear the brunt of the cutbacks.

By the time we get to the end of this Parliament in 2020, the police budget will have fallen from its 2010 level by over 40 per cent, so it is no wonder the police chiefs are having to look at drastic ways of saving money. I would rather lose a station than more police officers.

How does our Police Commissioner explain to the local electorate how such savage cuts can be achieved without diminishing our service?

Perhaps she could explain how the Government cuts will change our police service in North Yorkshire. Please give her the opportunity to present the next five-year budget forecasts.

Councillor Heseltine describes any move to close Skipton Police station as a “retrograde step and not what the public would expect”.

What did the voters expect?

We were promised austerity and that is what is on offer. We are getting what the Conservatives promised, so we should not be surprised, especially as the don’t have the Liberal Democrats acting as a brake. Will our MP vote against Government cuts to the police service?

Somehow I doubt it. I await his speech in the Commons attacking the Chancellor for the unprecedented decimation of our local police service.

Peter Marshall, Raikes Avenue, Skipton.

Sir - For 80 years or more, Kettlewell with Starbotton has laid claim to being one of the English communities furthest away from a passenger railway line, – 15 miles.

From April next year, if North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) have their way, Kettlewell will also become seven miles distant from a bus route. The four buses that call at the village each weekday will be axed at a stroke. It is all a question of cash. For the sake of a paltry £1.5m or so, the Kettlewell route and several others across the Dales could be safe. But the government has cut the cash and the sons of fun at NYCC have identified public transport as the target. There is no alternative.

No alternative? My research uncovered a couple of interesting facts.

Whilst London accounts for a mere 13 per cent of the populace it actually swallows up 36 per cent of national transport costs. So somebody decided that the rest of us should bale them out. The northern local authorities – that is from Sheffield in the south, to Durham in the north, Hull in the east and Liverpool in the west and all the authorities in between – make an annual contribution. In 2013 this was about £40m and it was made to – wait for it – Transport for London!

But worse is to come.

The workforce at Transport for London (TFL) currently stands at a staggering 22,239 people. Each of these employees is given a ‘nominee pass’ which provides free bus and tube transport for the holder. In the last year, 8.4million free journeys were taken by the friends, relatives or flat mates of TFL workers. The cost was £22.2m or £111m during the five year life of our new government.

So on the one hand we have Dales communities crying out for a couple of million to retain a basic public transport facility, and on the other, we have friends, relatives, flat mates and freeloaders of TFL employees shovelling up over £22m of free journeys each year.

As I get older, I am ever more convinced that the only thing that is rocket science, is rocket science. Everything else is infinitely simpler. Somebody in authority who has a willingness, could sort this out in about ten minutes.

John Vessey, Kettlewell.

SIR - It is worrying to read that Lancashire planning officers have recommended approval of fracking and that there are also proposals for test drilling in Yorkshire.

On an immediate practical level, it is difficult to see how they can easily dispose of the amount of polluted water that these wells produce. The traffic this will generate and the risk of leakage or dubious disposal seems highly problematic in a small country.

On a more long term practical level, it is hard to see how this helps us to invest in the unavoidable transition to an economy that doesn’t depend on burning fossils.

In Germany and now in China they are seriously going about the business of converting their economies to work effectively on much lower energy consumption. We seem determined to extract every last drop of oil and gas we can force out of the ground in the desperate hope that this will keep our economy afloat.

I trust that we can rely on our own local planning officers and our elected officials to reject any proposals to frack the ground beneath our homes and businesses that come their way.

Andy Brown, Green Party, Main Street, Cononley.

SIR - As I write, the beautiful old and possibly original paving slabs are being ripped up from outside my house, which is within the conservation area. They are being replaced with hideous black, sticky tarmac. The slabs were nearly all in good condition.

The road is full of potholes, but nothing is being done about that. According to the men carrying out the work, there is more money available for footpaths than roads. When I rang the Highways Department to ask why this work was deemed necessary, I was told I would receive a response in due course.

The character is being ripped out of our lovely town and it seems that we, the residents, are powerless to do anything about it. It is our council tax that pays for these council abominations and we are the ones that have to live with them when the tourists have gone home. What an insult to our intelligence.

Mair Forder, Duke Street, Skipton.

SIR - The letter from Andy Brown (June 4) is yet another plea for more money to be found for the NHS. The reality is that the NHS has plenty of money but that there is waste on a huge scale due to expenditure on drugs and procedures, which are ineffective and often do more harm than good.

Here are some examples: *Statins are being prescribed to many people even though NICE accepts that 77 people have to be on the treatment for 3 years in order that one will benefit. In practice, many come off the drug because of the very unpleasant side-effects. This only applies to those who already suffer from heart disease. For others, where the statins are supposed to be preventative, the benefits are non-existent but the side-effects are the same.

*Type 2 Diabetes costs the NHS about £10bn per annum. The official NHS line is that this disease is incurable. Patients are prescribed various drugs including insulin and are usually advised to reduce their consumption of fat and increase foods which are rich in carbohydrates such as rice, pasta and wholemeal bread. This is a strategy which is not only disastrous but fundamentally wrong. In fact there is now overwhelming evidence that it is possible for many people to cure the disease by simply reducing their consumption of carbohydrates, especially sugar, and replacing them with the healthy fats which are contained in foods such as butter, meat and avocados. The research which is sound and reliable is totally confirmed by the hundreds, if not thousands of individuals, who have successfully conquered their Type 2 Diabetes by adopting this approach. This is in direct contravention of the conventional NHS approach. It really does beggar belief that the NHS persists with a policy which causes a deterioration in health, not to mention the enormous sums of money which it costs.

*Mammography is a procedure in which the breast is examined using a special X-ray machine to detect signs of cancer. The rationale is that early detection enables treatment to be started before symptoms become evident thereby increasing the chances of curing or controlling the disease. However the benefits of detecting the cancer in some people have to be balanced against the “false positives”. This means a number of women are subjected to all the hazards and trauma of treatment even though they do not have the disease or if left alone would recover spontaneously. According to the distinguished Danish researcher Peter Gøtzsche, the NHS estimate that one case of breast cancer in 400 will be detected by mammography is a gross exaggeration and does not have any evidence to justify the figure. Based on his studies, the genuine value should be one in 2000. On the other hand, his research shows that 10 of the 2000 healthy women will, as a consequence, become cancer patients and will be treated unnecessarily. A very heavy price to pay, especially as this information is not given to those who agree to the screening.

It really is time that the Government and the NHS conduct a much more critical evaluation of all the drugs, tests and other procedures which are being used. I contend that all the examples described here could be abandoned without any detriment to patients. I have absolutely no doubt that with respect to Type 2 Diabetes, there is every likelihood of very significant improvements in health and well-being. I have only considered a relatively small number of issues but I strongly suspect that these are not isolated examples. Certainly there are many drugs which are relatively ineffective.

In his Reith lecture on the BBC last year Dr. Atul Gawande cited research in which positive action was taken to limit the number of drugs prescribed in homes for old people. It was discovered that this reduced the mortality by over 50 per cent when compared with those who were treated according to the usual practice in which many more drugs were prescribed. We have to wake up to the fact that more does not mean better and can actually cause harm.

Lack of resources is not the fundamental problem with the NHS. If we keep throwing money at the system, we will finish up like the USA, which spends more than twice the amount on health care per capita as other developed nations, but ranks 49th in life expectancy worldwide.

Everything I have said here can be fully substantiated. We have to ask if our politicians are so pathetic that they are incapable of addressing these issues, especially as there are brownie points to be gained from the electorate. Alternatively there may be a more sinister explanation which I leave to the reader’s imagination!

Verner Wheelock, Glusburn.

SIR - Before the Public Consultation in May/June 2011 concerning South Skipton Employment Zone (aka Wyvern Park), Craven District Council was advised that, to develop the site prior to building for employment use only, would leave them with a large deficit. A major part of this was for flood prevention. This part is now fully funded and underway. Residents were only consulted on the industry aspect.

Also in June 2011 ‘a company’ approached CDC ‘bearing gifts’. They would develop the site but only if it included areas of higher value than employment. Step forward developer/speculator Henry Boot with first a Sainsbury’s store, and now a 225units, dense, low-cost, isolated housing estate without social facilities. Again, this comes under the cloak of a reduced employment element.

Like fellow residents, I have twice attended the flimsy presentations of this scheme.

There is so much that is vague and not confirmed; which means second-rate solutions behind closed doors. However, it appears that in order to duck the major traffic problems, the developer would give North Yorkshire County Council Highways a sum of money to solve them. As the traffic consultant said at the first consultation; ‘It was not up to them to solve Skipton’s problems’. It is also not for them to make them worse. We all know what this would mean: not a proper, proactive fix for these dangerous narrow routes with their limited pavements, by using roundabouts, prohibitive signs and pedestrian crossings; but white lines and lettering that disappears, minimal signing and noisy bumps in the road. It also appears that the data is two years out-of-date and is based on late afternoon readings instead of the much busier morning rush hours.

The proposed housing estate is a piece of social engineering that harks back to the’50s and’60s with all the bad elements.

Does Skipton really want this?

G Wood, Skipton.

SIR - May I through your pages correct some myths surrounding grass cutting. (Or lack of it). As well as cutting the visibility splays at road ends for driver safety, North Yorkshire County Council has for years cut some amenity areas as well. Sadly these amenity areas are not going to be done any more due to austerity measures and cutbacks and have never been a statutory duty but something they have always just done. NYCC do not own any roads or verges but are charged with doing what is necessary for highway and public safety. Over the last two years all parish and town councils have been notified this was going to happen and some councils have adjusted their precept to cover the cost of doing it themselves and some have not. This has all come about due to NYCC receiving £98 million less over the last five years from central government and savings have had to be found. Of non teaching staff out of 10,000 staff there are now 1,400 staff less than five years ago. Over the next five years NYCC will be £78 million worse off as they will have to find savings to cover this shortage. Officers never stop working out where cuts in non statutory services can be made while keeping essential frontline services going. Sorry if this all sounds gloomy but I try to be realistic and honest. Craven District Council is in a similar position and are trying to do more for less and unless the government grants to local authorities change there will be more cuts and austerity measures to come.

Cllr Richard Welch, Giggleswick.

SIR - It was fascinating to read J Merrick’s letter which complained about political sniping and then proceeded to indulge in it for six paragraphs.

Nevertheless I can assure the author that the Green Party will listen and take on board his concerns and I am sure our members will stop writing letters to the Craven Herald. Just as soon as there is serious action to tackle climate change, the risk of fracking beneath the Dales disappears, sensible controls on greenfield housing developments are applied, any necessary austerity is applied to the wealthy instead of the poor and the NHS is properly funded and immune to top down re-organisations.

It is also just possible that some of our 100 local members, we have the third biggest membership of any party in the country, might also feel entitled to write to their local paper on their concerns over the effectiveness of the running of a local council which awards major contracts behind closed doors without providing members with full & timely information about who that organisation has recently sold houses to. One or two of us might even feel driven to express our anger over farmers seeing lower prices for milk than for bottled water whilst sugary drinks are marketed to our children. I tend to think that expressing a view over such issues amounts to highly positive campaigning and long may the Green Party continue to do so in order to contribute to public debate on topics of genuine concern to a lot of local people.

Andy Brown, Skipton and Craven Green Party, Cononley.

SIR - I recently took advantage of a rare Sunday off work to catch up on some serious newspaper reading one of them being the Craven Herald of May 21.

How I wish I hadn’t bothered such was my resulting rage and raised blood pressure.

Page 5. Woman appears Skipton Magistrates Court for stealing underwear. Fined £70 Page 3. Man recently released from prison appears before Skipton Magistrates Court for violent incident during which he headbutted 2 Police Officers. Fined £70.

I had to read it several times to make sure my weary eyes were not deceiving me.

Surely in these days of dramatic financial cut backs and restraints on our public services we as a society should be supporting our public servants more not equating the penalty for two vicious assaults on our police officers to that of the theft of some pairs of knickers. Come on magistrates.What sort of message does that send out?

A shameful and very sad one is my suggestion.

Tim Cannon, Settle.

SIR - The trustees of Skipton Temperance Hall Fund are able to offer grants to local charities and organisations. Applicants must either support the temperance cause in some way, or give help to Craven residents in need, or encourage a healthy lifestyle or help people with drug or alcohol problems or who are involved in youth work. Any organisation seeking a grant must apply in writing to Mr M Bray, 7 George Street, Carleton, Skipton. BD23 3HQ giving details of their organisation and enclosing a copy of their annual accounts. The closing date is July 5, 2015.

Malcolm Bray, Carleton.

SIR - When the much-anticipated Keelham Farm Shop opens its doors on June 24, I sincerely hope that the owners will have in place a good system for monitoring the car park. Bearing in mind the numbers of cars which used to use the verges thereabouts and which now seem to be spreading further and further down the road outside Aireville Park (always parking across the cyclists’ lane which I thought was illegal), there may be some who will see Keelham as an excellent place to dump their vehicles during the working day.

Alan Sturgess, Gargrave.

SIR - I would like to thank Louise Schofield (advertising) and all the lovely staff at the Craven Herald office in Skipton. They could not be more kind and helpful.

Mrs C Eggleston, Skipton.