I READ with anger and great sadness of the financial dilemma facing Settle Swimming Pool and the withdrawal of vital funds by Craven District Council to help support this essential facility to the town (“Experts are called in over pool cash crisis”, Craven Herald, January 28).
I’ve lived in Settle the majority of my life and remember, all through the 60s and 70s, the fundraising done by Settle Carnival and various sponsored events to raise money to build the pool and the great excitement when the pool finally opened in 1974.
Over 40 years, Settle has grown with a considerable number of new houses, therefore generating a substantial income for the council. In the past 12 months alone, at least 50 new homes have been built in Settle/Giggleswick, one of which I moved into off Ingfield Lane.
These additional homes will have generated CDC at least £75,000 to £100,000 in council tax revenue, so where exactly is this money being spent?
It seems grossly unfair if a proportion of our council tax is being spent on the modern, all-singing, all-dancing Craven Pool, which very few people from Settle and the surrounding area travel 16 miles to use, while Settle is treated as a poor relation.
It would be a disaster for Settle if the pool is forced to close: for the schools, the elderly, swimming clubs, rehab and for those, like me, who just like a swim twice a week after work. We are all being constantly told to get fit and a pool is not a luxury, it’s a necessity for the wellbeing of all ages.
Forty years on and still the pool is limping along, with an army of volunteers collecting and recycling waste paper in all weathers to raise vital funds to keep the pool running. Please, CDC, have a heart and a conscience, and do the right thing by donating some of the revenue Settle has generated by the additional homes built and invest some much-needed money to this worthy, essential facility Settle so desperately needs, so future generations can enjoy this great place.
I look forward to a response from CDC.
WENDY PORTER
Austwick Close, Settle

I HAVE finally been provided with the details of the 109 homes consulted with regard to the proposed Wyvern Park development– No consultation (Letters, January 28).
More than 50 per cent of the consultees were actually businesses – 36 were homes in Willow Way, which is the new development opposite the crematorium and not directly fronting Carleton Road, although quite rightly consulted. One was in Calton Terrace and one in Airedale Terrace, which do face on to Carleton Road.
None were addresses actually in Carleton Road, which is the road and residential area most affected by the proposed Wyvern Park development and, interestingly, letters of consultation were sent to one property in Gargrave, one in Embsay, one in Cowling and one in Shiptonthorpe!
All I seek is proper consultation and answers to six simple questions:
1. Why is the link from Wyvern Park to Carleton Road necessary?
2. In the green economy in which we now live, why not link the development with a cycle route and footpath only? If residents wish to use their cars, they can then use the bypass to travel to town.
3. If the link to Carleton Road has to happen, how will the council, developer and highways make the road safer for pedestrians, drivers and those who live next to the road and park there every day? There are no current plans.
4. Why is there no link to Engine Shed Lane, which would mean all of the lorries that currently have to travel through town (at least one per day turns down Carleton Road and has to turn round at The Close) could go through to Engine Shed Lane from Wyvern Park? The developers’ report only rejects this as they cannot establish the owner of the land!
5. Why build so many properties and business premises on an area of land that has recently been under water? Where will that water go in future?
6. If the development goes ahead, how will the developers access the land, as we believe they will not be able to use Carleton Road, as it is in a conservation area?
If anyone requires further information or access to the list of “homes’”consulted, please e-mail me at tim@timforman.com for details.
TIM FORMAN
Skipton

THE generous giving of the public at Christmas time across various fundraising activities, including Roll A Penny at Grassington Dickensian Festival, Skipton supermarket collections and Santa Sleigh nights, enabled the Rotary Club of Skipton Craven to collect nearly £11,000.
We thank all those who helped us achieve this magnificent response. Monies will be distributed to good causes in due course.
The sum of £1,071 was raised for the Cumbria Flood Appeal.
In previous years, for example, we have donated to Manorlands, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Ocean Youth Trust, Kids Out, Brooklands Special School, Shelter Box and Airedale A&E appeal, among others.
We also thank all those who supported our annual Great Skipton Santa Fun Run. We do not have a final figure of the amount raised yet, as we are still collecting information from participants.
CLIVE JOLLIFFE
Skipton Craven Rotary Club PR chairman,
Eastburn

MAY I use your columns to put forward ideas into the debate regarding this area’s housing and business developments already built, in the process of being built or proposed in the future.
It goes without saying that there is already, and definitely likely to be in the future, a marked increase in the number of vehicles using Carleton Road and Carleton New Road that are heading out of town.
To ensure the increase in the volume of vehicles has an unimpeded progress on these roads, I suggest the following as regards parking:
No parking between Hothfield Terrace and the railway bridge;
No parking between the railway bridge, along Calton Terrace to the junction of Brookland Terrace;
No parking anywhere in Carleton New Road, including the road to its junction with Broughton Road;
No parking between Highfield Hotel and Clifford House (this would prevent hold-ups in Keighley Road);
The traffic lights in Keighley Road be set to work together to prevent hold-ups, which occur now because one set is at green and the other at red;
By means of a filter lane, allow vehicles to proceed into Craven Street from Keighley Road when the lights are at red for vehicles heading for the town centre; and
If planning permission is given for the development in Wyvern Park, the roundabout on the bypass must be built before any building takes place to prevent construction traffic accessing the site from Carleton Road. This traffic must use the bypass.
A weight limit of two tonnes must be in place if any vehicles use the entrance to the site from Carleton Road, even when the proposed development is finished. The maximum should be Transit-van size.
The Engine Shed Lane industrial complex must be connected to the bypass, keeping HGVs off Carleton New Road, which is the access route at present, with the result that large artics have problems with the tight corners near the railway bridge.
PETER BEWES
Burnside Crescent, Skipton

I DO not know how many houses per year Craven needs.
There are so many things that affect the total, many of them unknown, that nobody else does either.
The best that can be done is to plan with enough flexibility to cope with a range of possibilities.
The Local Plan sets the lower limit. The upper limit is not a fixed figure. So, the important thing is not to set the lower limit at too high a number.
From 2005-2012, the target was 250 houses per year. During that same period, the average built was 179. Clearly, 250 was too high. Setting it now at 256 seems perverse to the point of lunacy.
The result is likely to be that the Local Plan will be accepted by Bristol, but will offer no protection at all because the number of houses built will be too low to allow it to be effective. CDC will have compounded its lack of energy in producing a plan, by producing one that is useless.
We will continue to be treated to the excuse that a development cannot be blocked “because there isn’t a five-year supply of land”. Note that if the target was lower, we would not need such a large supply of land.
Pushing for a Local Plan at a meeting many months ago, I suggested that employing a planning department just to prevent people using the wrong-coloured stone on their garden walls was a waste of money. It was said as a joke. I have to say that the joke has worn very thin.
DAVID WALSH
Western Road, Skipton

FLOODING has of late affected so many of us, and as somebody who was born and bred in our beautiful countryside and has watched it change over the years, I would like to raise an issue that is so little discussed in relation to flooding (even less than climate change), and that is moorland stewardship.
Lately, it has come to light that upland moorland (where 70 per cent of rainwater falls initially), which is kept deliberately dry for grouse, could be leading to problems with water accumulation down-valley.
The way that grouse moorland is managed generally means that the land that should be absorbing water does not.
George Monbiot, journalist and conservationist, has of late written extensively on this subject, as has Mark Avery, RSPB conservation director. And it seems that not only those affected by flooding are affected – the costlier process needed to clean up the water polluted by the burning of upland heather during “stewardship” of the grouse moors is actually increasing our water bills.
More than 99 per cent of us are not involved in driven grouse shooting (a practice that has been linked to the decline of the endangered hen harrier, as well as other wildlife, and human poisonings through lead shot). Why, therefore, is the Government still subsidising this “leisure activity” with thousands of pounds of our taxpayers’ money?
KATIE CHABRIERE
Harrogate (formerly Settle)

I WRITE regarding some people having to take their wheeled bins to the end of their street because some health and safety officer says the refuse collectors will get repetitive strain injury dragging the bins up and down the back streets – “Concern at ‘unacceptable’ changes to bin collections” (Craven Herald, January 14).
These bins have two wheels fitted to them, hence the name (wheeled bin). If householders have to do this themselves, surely they should get a reduction in their council tax and not an increase that is expected to come in April?
If the council had the back streets surfaced, this would solve the problem, or get two more wheels fitted to the bins. Next thing they will be wanting electric motors fitted to them.
A MUNNERLEY
Long Meadow, Skipton

I WENT to put flowers on my late husband’s grave at Keasden Church.
We always try to keep our church and churchyard tidy for others to visit and enjoy.
I usually walk around the churchyard and collect up branches and put them in one of the bins and admire the view over Ingleborough.
I then noticed litter under the front wall of the churchyard. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dirty disposable nappies and a plastic bag thrown over the wall on to the graves. I used the bag to carry the “rubbish” into one of the three bins just a few metres away.
What kind of person could do this? It made me feel sick and so angry I had to put it down on paper.
ELEANOR PROCTER
Wrayton

AS a nation, we appear to be obsessed by celebrity.
My attention was drawn to the latest activity in the form of an advert on TV of ski jumping, in which the various celebrities land head-first from the sky around a car, causing consternation to the occupants.
At roughly the time, I listened to a radio programme about the death of an American citizen on board Pan Am 103, who was found in a house garden in the Lockerbie area and the relationship that had built up around the families involved.
As a traveller on this air route, passing north over Craven, I always have the threat of bombs, etc, at the back of my mind. Am I alone in finding the comparison a little thought-provoking, or do I have a little too much imagination?
STEWART LEWIS
Esp Lane, Barnoldswick

IF we are in for another “ice age”, let us prepare for it now. Let us change the building regulations from 7ft 2in to 7ft floor to ceiling height.
This will allow rooms to warm up quicker and therefore reduce deaths due to hypothermia.
I am 5ft 6in and living in a chalet. My floor to ceiling height is 7ft and and I have a nine-inch beam across my ceiling, so I don’t need to crouch to get under it.
If we are in for a wetter climate, let us build our homes higher than the prevailing flood plain. What do we pay planners for?
JEFF BILBOROUGH
Hebden

I WOULD like thank the residents of North Skipton who that voted for me in the recent Skipton Town Council by-election.
I also need to thank those colleagues who advised and worked for my election.
Finally, I would like to commit to all the residents that I will do all I can to represent your views and deliver real improvements and efficiencies.
COUNCILLOR JONATHAN KERR
Skipton