I WRITE regarding the proposed plans for 96 new homes off Aldersley Avenue and Moorview Way in Skipton – Shock as housing plan is prepared (Craven Herald, May 26).
I have concerns about potential traffic hazards – all/most will have one or two cars per house.
Also, it is not on the Horse Close Estate bus route, which turns off Moorview Way much lower down into Hurrs Road.
The earliest bus from the bus station is 9.30am, and it then runs hourly until the last bus at 2.30pm, which is of no use to schoolchildren nor adults going to and from work.
There will be a vast increase in traffic down Shortbank Road into Newmarket Street at busy times. Traffic lights would be needed as, at present, traffic from Ilkley has precedence at the traffic island at the Shortbank Road/Brougham Street junction, and many vehicles drive straight over the central island.
Also, the junction into Moorview Way from the Elsey Croft estate, and from the proposed estate of 96 houses, constitutes a hazard. I suggest that traffic cameras witness traffic from Elsey Croft, which neither halts nor slows down before turning right into Moorview Way onto the wrong side of the road at quite a fast speed.
It’s only a matter of time before the first accident at that junction, especially in view of the proposed increase in traffic from the other direction.
MRS A CROSSLEY
Roughaw Road, Skipton

I READ the article regarding parking charges at Airedale Hospital – Hospital car parking arrangements to change (Craven Herald, June 2).
I must confess I have complained a few times about parking charges at Airedale.
I attend regular appointments at the hospital and, usually, I’m in and out within 30 minutes, so you can imagine paying £2.50 for three hours’ parking makes my blood boil.
I can’t say I’m over the moon with the planned upgrades – it just shows how much money they are making from people who are sick. What is just as disgusting is the fact they charge the staff for parking.
I would like to point out that in NHS Scotland and Wales, parking is free along with free prescriptions. England NHS trusts choose to charge their patents when it’s not mandatory.
I’m sure the new parking system will be better than the system we have now. I hope the machines give change, but I doubt they will.
They claim the money is reinvested back into the car park. Really? It would appear to be a smoke screen.
They also claim to be one of the cheapest places to park but they miss the point completely, as it should be free.
RICHARD CRAVEN
Wheatlands Lane, Cross Hills

I WOULD just like to say thank you to Chris Weston for opening his Rathmell farm on Open Farm Sunday.
It was an enjoyable visit on such a warm sunny day. We even had an insight of how the woodland burial site works and helps to maintain the rest of the farm.
Also a big thanks to the ladies of Rathmell Reading Room, who kept the food and drinks coming, which was much appreciated. With such a lot of visitors there, they must have been worn out, but well done to everybody.
BRENDA WOOD
College Croft, Rathmell

AS A native of Ramsbottom, Lancashire, who has been exiled in Yorkshire for the past 34 years, I read the note regarding purple mounds in fields – A Craven Diary (Craven Herald, May 19) – with amusement.
Not only a native of Ramsbottom but I wrote my university dissertation on the paper industry in the Rossendale Fells (it was sadly destroyed as a result of condensation and mould in my flat but the negatives of the photographically-reduced maps and diagrams I had drawn survived and have been printed and beautifully framed by Rob Keep in Grassington and now hang in my study). I am therefore thrilled to know there is a little bit of true Lancashire (apart from me!) in the locality.
As to the purple colour, well, every good Lancastrian knows the Loyal Toast is ‘The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster’ to be heard resounding through the House of Lords on March 11 at a reunion dinner of our (Lancashire) school, so what else but Royal Purple? Come on, Yorkshire, the Wars of the Roses are not yet over, they are just more subtle and the answer obviously lies in the soil.
On a completely different topic, how I agree with Mohammed Shabir’s Thought for the Week (Craven Herald, May 19). My reading of The Bible is that St Peter was redeemed after his denial by a vision of animals, which the Jews considered unclean and being told by God to kill and eat, he refused saying nothing unclean would pass his lips and God responding saying that nothing He had made was unclean. Peter then realised that God’s love was available to all and it began his ministry promoting it.
In my view, the Pope, as supposed direct descendent of St Peter, should invite leaders of all Christian denominations and of all other faiths and have a photoshoot with the caption ‘We are all equal children of God’ and have it splashed across the world. Nowhere was it suggested that love should be spread by torture, burning, war or any other form of aggression or exclusion.
GILL DRIVER
Grassington

THE application for 96 new houses off Moorview Way in Skipton – Shock as housing plan is prepared (Craven Herald, May 26) – could mean between 150 and 200 more cars using Newmarket Street twice every day.
I write to oppose most vehemently any further development in this area.
I come into Skipton down Grassington Road and, more often than not, cars are queueing by Holy Trinity churchyard prior to going round the cenotaph to enter the High Street. This queue is, to some extent, caused by the traffic lights in the High Street, but far more so by traffic from Keighley Road and Broughton Road wishing to use Newmarket Street to go to Ilkley or to houses up Moorview Way, who have right of way at the bottom of the High Street.
Another 150 to 200 cars will only exacerbate the problem further.
Taken the other way round, traffic proceeding down Newmarket Street from Ilkley and Moorview Way is very often nose-to-tail or at a standstill. If planning permission is given, traffic in Skipton will be gridlocked more often than not.
Has anyone borne in mind the situation with school places and the effect on doctors surgeries?
Sewage could be a problem – the main sewer runs, I believe, under Newmarket Street.
Once again, good agricultural and grazing land is going to disappear under concrete and asphalt. Where is our food coming from in the future?
STEPHEN BUTCHER
The Fleets, Rylstone

WHY is Craven Council allowing motorbikes to park in the area just outside Skipton Town Hall?
The fumes when they rev up must choke the people sitting on the seats. It’s time to stop them parking there. I did notice the traffic warden, who had just placed a parking ticket on a van 20 metres away, just walked past the bikes!
MR R CHIPPENDALE
Sutton-in-Craven

THE consultation about removing disability parking spaces from outside Skipton Town Hall – Bid to axe disabled bays sparks outrage (Craven Herald, May 26) – is no doubt a sham.
The building is to become a restaurant and the restaurateurs are anxious to have outside seating space on the setts area occupied by the spaces. If the setts are uneven, then the council can make them more even as it owns the site.
I visited the site twice last week – both times the spaces were fully occupied. On one occasion, a disabled woman visitor was sat in the car admiring the church, war memorial, castle gate and top of the High Street from her seat because she was unable to walk around them, whilst her daughter had gone shopping for takeaway lunches.
Not much to see from the parking spaces proposed at the town hall and much further to walk or roll to the High Street with the dangers of Jerry Croft to face. Bad enough for the nifty, let alone those with two sticks or a zimmer.
As Wendy Witten says, if they are to go then other spaces should be created in the High Street. A hundred yards to walk from the town hall car park to the High Street is an awfully long way for many people who qualify for blue discs.
CLAIRE NASH
Hall Croft, Skipton

WITH reference to the letter from Graham Cooper from Bentham – Debate the issues (Craven Herald, May 26) – in which he expresses a degree of puzzlement regarding the apparent change of mind of local MP Julian Smith on the role of Britain and its relationship with the EU.
The following may be of relevance: in the wake of last year’s General Election, Mr Smith was promoted to Government as an assistant whip.
Now the Conservative Party is divided on this issue and people much higher up the ministerial ladder than Mr Smith, such as Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and Priti Patel, are campaigning for the UK to leave the EU.
However, it is Mr Smith’s specific role in Government, along with his fellow whips, to encourage, persuade, cajole and browbeat his fellow Tory MPs to support the Government by going through the lobbies to get the legislative programme onto the statute book.
It is the stated view of HM Government that this nation’s best interests are served by remaining in the UK.
Now we all know the poacher can turn gamekeeper. What he cannot do, however, is to hold the two positions at the same time.
PETER THRELFALL
Hallams Yard, Skipton

ON June 3, I attended the EU debate at Craven College.
After 40 minutes, I called Kenneth Clarke MP a liar and walked out. Why? Mr Clarke had just pronounced that immigration was not relevant to the EU debate as it would not change whether we stay in the EU or not and, anyway, the majority of immigrants come from outside the EU.
I would have thought that even in his Westminster bubble he would have heard the latest official migration figures. In the past 12 months, net immigration to the UK was reported as being 333,000 people, and 184,000 came from the EU. My primary school maths says 333,000 minus 184,000 equals 149,000 – surely the number that must have come from outside the EU? Those same primary school numeracy skills tell me that 184,000 is greater than 149,000.
I wasn’t going to waste my time listening to the pontification of a man whose credibility had fallen at the first hurdle. Incidentally, Tony Blair sang from the same inaccurate song-sheet on The Andrew Marr show the previous Sunday.
MALCOLM GUY
Aire Valley Drive, Bradley

THE only way is out!
By now, I think a lot of people might be sick and tired of the constant barrage of news and comment ahead of the EU referendum vote on June 23, projections dressed as facts by the remain side and endless scaremongering from the Government and its temporary friends in the Labour, Liberals, Sinn Fein, SNP and Welsh Nationalists, along with interventions from Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and 13 former US secretaries of state.
In all the 40 years that I have been able to vote, I have never seen such an orchestrated campaign to try and scare the electorate into voting to remain in a European Union with an unelected, undemocratic European Commission and a European Parliament that is never going to react promptly to anything that happens in the real world outside the EU bubble, for the simple reason that by the time 28 heads of state agree anything, the world will have moved on and there will be new crises to deal with.
We will all, of course, survive the next 40-something days, future general elections will seem like a walk in the park and can only be a much more civilised and pleasant affair, with the politicians concentrating on the economy, NHS, schools and, hopefully, not immigration, and I will have voted to leave the EU, a decision I made only after David Cameron had come back from Brussels with the smallest of changes to the way the European Union works.
None of the parties will class me as a swivel-eyed, conspiracy theorist, xenophobic little Englander when they want my vote in 2020.
I think the way this EU referendum campaign is being conducted by the Remain side is disgraceful.
Raising the prospect of war in Europe if we vote to leave is beneath contempt, and there is no doubt worse to come – 80 per cent of our MPs support remain, currently just more than 50 per cent of voters (excluding undecideds) want to leave.
I can only conclude the MPs are out of step with the electorate, for now we can wait until 2020 to ask them why this is and just respect they have only one vote like you or I.
One thing is for sure, UK politicians will never again trust the voter with a vote on leaving the European Union and restoring the primacy of the UK parliament and the 650 MPs who we elect.
This could be the last chance we ever get.
TONY DAY
Addingham

THERE has been a great deal of rhetoric, from both sides, in regard to the forthcoming referendum on our membership of the European Union.
If we believe all that has been promulgated and vote to remain, house prices will drop to near zero ... but that will be of no advantage as World War Three will probably break out by the end of the month. Wages will fall and prices will rise.
However, were we to choose to leave, there will be an influx of immigrants that will surely overwhelm us; the population of Craven will soar into the millions!
I exaggerate, of course, but much of the claims and counter-claims is pure speculation, with the apparent aim of terrifying voters to go one way or the other.
Are there no positive arguments? Indeed there are, and not all are restricted to economics.
The Social Chapter has given rights to workers, including security of employment, which would not be guaranteed without the leverage of our membership.
Environmental improvements have been secured, and could easily be in jeopardy.
Women’s rights are far better protected because of all that has been gained through Europe.
Yes, we would gain a measure of ‘independence’ were we to choose to leave. So, if you want to have your independent sewage on your independent beach, vote leave.
As for me, I consider that I have more in common with the ordinary people across Europe than our political leadership, and will vote remain.
ALAN HICKMAN
Skipton

I WAS very interested in the letter from reader AJA Smith – EU claims are wrong (Craven Herald, April 21).
I have always believed Edward Heath duped us all so we would sign up to The Common Market for improved trade only. Now we know he admitted this in 1998.
I have received the Remain booklet that cost taxpayers more than £9 million to produce. It could have been plain but all the coloured pictures must have put the price up unnecessarily. Yes, I read it because it would have been silly not to, and then I popped it in an envelope and posted it back to David Cameron, as have some other people I know.
Nigel Farage will be delighted. For any readers who want to do the same, they may like to know the postcode for 10 Downing Street is 2AA – a special code.
PATRICIA MASON
Roughaw Close, Skipton

APPROVAL for fracking in North Yorkshire. A Judas-like betrayal of local folk in what is known as ‘God’s own country’ and of Britain at large. Incentives will apply.
Lancashire’s unspoilt Bowland area of natural beauty is also in line for plundering.
Fortunately, fossil shale gas deposits have not been found in the Cotswolds or in the Home Counties.
Since the recent closure of North Yorkshire’s Kellingley colliery, we are dependent on coal imports from China, Americas, Russia and Poland. The cost of the carbon footprint! Carrying ‘coals to Newcastle’ springs to mind. Was it not possible Kellingley, with its huge coal deposits, could have lead to carbon capture or underground gasification?
No way can shale gas exploitation be permitted.
Nuclear power is not an option. Renewables, wave power, wind, solar plus a reduction in energy consumption is the only way forward.
BRIAN ORMONDROYD
Birchwood Court,
Ilkley