10:30am Saturday 6th March 2010
Sir – We are writing to express our support for the middle school system in North Craven.
We fear that the current review of education by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) may propose the current three-tier education system be replaced with a two-tier system which would mean the closure of Settle and Ingleton Middle Schools, along with Settle College, to be replaced by one large secondary school.
Our two children, who have Special Education Needs, thrived and flourished in all areas during their time at Settle Middle School. Our eldest child, who transferred from a special school to Settle Middle, is now studying A levels at Craven College, which is a testament to the nurturing, creative, child-centred ethos which runs throughout Settle Middle School.
We fully support the correspondence previously published in the Herald from the heads and staff of the middle schools (Letters, December 24 and January 21). Understandably, the letter from the principal of Settle College (Letters, December 10) was concerned about the sixth-form provision being secure. We are confident during the consultation process he and Settle College’s governing body will be eager to express their support to retain a three-tier education system in North Craven.
The disruption involved in school closures would impact severely on our children’s education. To preserve our middle schools, parents, teachers and governors will need to unite to tell NYCC we are determined to keep them.
Liam and Diane Dillon, Hammerton Drive, Hellifield
Sir - This is a copy of a letter sent to Paul Florentine, waste and recycling manager at Craven District Council.
“I am writing to take issue with your new waste and recycling collection system. For us, the old system worked far better. Household waste was collected weekly from our green bin and paper and cardboard once a month from our blue bin. All other recyclables we sorted ourselves into their individual categories and we took them to the Settle Recycling Centre whenever we had amassed a sufficient quantity.
“I suspect, like most people, our waste paper and cardboard well exceeds that of glass and plastic bottles and tins.
“Now you have given yourselves the mammoth task of separating the glass from the tins and the plastics from the former. “In addition, the two plastic bags you have supplied to each household are not nearly big enough for the paper and cardboard these households produce fortnightly and the contents, with no ties to seal them, will surely become saturated while waiting for collection.
“I know you will say that a lot of people, in particular the elderly and housebound, have no way of getting their tins, bottles etc to a recycling facility, but one solution to this problem might be to have a collection point in every village which would cut down time and fuel consumption for the collection vehicles.
“Our solution will have to be now that we take the bulk of our paper and cardboard to Settle instead of the small quantity of glass, plastic and tins that we did previously, but still combining it with a shopping trip mindful of our ‘carbon footprint’.”
Mrs Susan Yorke, Halton Place, Hellifield
Sir - I have always tried to recycle as much as possible.
In the past this meant that I took my bottles and cans to the bins at the village hall, put my card and paper in the blue bin and took my plastics to Settle. I compost all my own vegetable waste.
I was determined to try to make the new bins system work so have followed the instructions very carefully. Thursday (February 18) was grey on my new chart so the blue bin and blue bag “will be collected together”.
My blue bag was emptied and tucked neatly into my blue bin, but when I went to collect my bin it had not been emptied. It was half full of plastics, glass and cans. Our blue bins are only going to be emptied every four weeks. I think we were led to believe they would be emptied on alternate weeks. The blue bags for waste paper and card are also inadequate for flattened cardboard boxes so I shall have to take these to Settle whereas they fitted perfectly in my blue bin.
One final thought. How much is it costing and how much energy is now being used to separate the plastics, glass and cans when most of us were already doing it ourselves?
Maureen Nicholas, Eldroth House, Eldroth
Sir – I gather from the Craven recycle helpline that the blue bin inserts or “pods” are no longer needed.
May I now suggest that they could be used to collect waste paper?
Considering that the new blue sacks are inadequate and liable to blow away, these sturdy containers might be saved from the rubbish dump. Wet weather will be less of an issue in these narrow containers. How about it Craven District Council?
E Brunswick, Main Street, Cononley
Sir - A seemingly innocuous consultation could signal the end of having your voice heard at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA), including on the planning committee which makes so many decisions that impact on everyday life here in the local Dales communities. In prospect then is a return to the bad old days before 1997 when there were nearly no local representatives on the national park and insensitive planning decisions were taken by people who did not live or work here, and had little comprehension of the key issues for those of us who do.
The document is the Natural England Consultation “Lakes to Dales Designation Project”, which proposes to extend the boundaries of the national park further into Cumbria and also into Lancashire. It makes clear the proposals would trigger the “redistribution” of membership of the YDNPA. Two county and two district councillors from North Yorkshire would be removed. Their places would be taken by a Lancashire county councillor, a Lancashire city councillor and two others from Cumbria.
For example, the Upper Dales County Council division would lose its place and its 5,500 electors resident in the national park would be disenfranchised and their place taken by 200 electors in the extended boundary represented by a Lancashire county councillor. A Craven District councillor with 1,150 national park electors would be replaced by a Lancaster city councillor with 100.
The local democratic unfairness of this redistribution beggars belief.
If the boundaries were extended, 30 per cent of the national park would be in Cumbria and there is an increasing clamour from its communities for “Yorkshire” to be dropped from the official title “Yorkshire Dales National Park”. The suggestion of losing the association between the internationally-acclaimed landscapes in the Dales and the geographical location of Yorkshire has caused outright dismay in all those with a Yorkshire pedigree by birth, adoption or affection. It also threatens to dilute the powerful tourism branding built around the Yorkshire Dales, with disastrous implications for employment and prosperity in our local economies.
It is bizarre that the cost of the proposals, £5 million conservatively and ongoing, should be even contemplated in an age of civic austerity when there is not sufficient funding to go around for social services or grit for our winter roads. North Yorkshire County Council, Craven District Council, Richmondshire District Council and many Dales parish councils are objecting very strongly on all these key issues.
Please can your readers consider doing the same – electronically or in writing. The absolute deadline is Wednesday March 17. All details of how to make your views known are shown at lakestodaleslandscapes.org.uk
John Blackie, Independent County Councillor for the Upper Dales, Dryden House, Hawes
Sir - Mr T Graveson’s letter on North Yorkshire County Council imposing a snow levy and his good thinking on ways to reduce taxes got me studying ways Craven Council could also reduce taxes.
The first thing that came to mind was that our civic leaders could lower or, better still, cancel their self-imposed, inflation-busting allowance rises. Also, I believe some town council members may take a free holiday to Europe under the guise of town-twinning, something many hard-working residents of Craven district can only dream about as they budget to pay their council tax bills.
I think if more people wrote to the Herald with suggestions on lowering our taxes, our leaders might take note and have a rethink on their expenses etc, as I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be compared with our beloved MPs.
D Scriven, Moorview Way, Skipton
Sir - Pause for a moment to mentally combine the realities of the proposed 40 per cent hike in parking permit charges for Craven residents with the bone-rattling, disabled-unfriendly, legroom-restricted discomfort of so many of the Pennine bus fleet.
Then add in the body-jarring impact when buses have to trundle over the pretty-but-pointless redbrick halo which surrounds the new traffic island by the exit from the grounds of “Alcatraz-on-the-hill” near the Little Chef.
I don’t think it takes too much of a stretch of the imagination to anticipate increasing pressure on parking spaces in the streets around Skipton as residents try to avoid all of those annoyances.
It does make you wonder why the council didn’t leave the cost of residential permits at last year’s rate and simply revert to the previous limit of three hours.
Or maybe they prefer to do all they can to drive people out of the town towards other more visitor-friendly places, such as Barnoldswick.
Alan Sturgess, Eshton Road, Gargrave
Sir - I would like to question the wasting of money by North Yorkshire Highways.
On the back road from Carleton through to Cononley, patches of new Tarmac have appeared on the verges, which are too near to the side of the road for a vehicle to safely venture. Yet in Cononley itself there are several stretches of road desperately needing repair.
Also, Highways must have spent thousands of pounds in Skipton at the junction of Keighley Road and Swadford Street on a coloured surface. For what?
Thousands must also have been wasted redesigning the Christ Church junction because vehicles still turn right from Keighley Road and others travel the wrong way.
D Radcliffe, The Hawthorns, Sutton-in-Craven
Sir - In response to Chris Haslam’s five questions to Prospective Parliamentary Candidates last week, I am very pleased to confirm the following:
1: I have a home near Skipton and am therefore on the electoral roll. I have been visiting the area all my life as my family is from North Yorkshire and County Durham. For the past year I have been working flat out to meet as many people as possible, to convince them I will be a passionate and strong representative for our constituency and that only by voting Conservative will we remove this failing Labour government. I also own a property in London which I would intend to retain and use because, when parliament is sitting, MPs are required to vote into the evenings during the week.
If elected, I will split my time between Yorkshire and London – an arrangement which is logical for any northern-based MP, given the impracticality of commuting daily and the need to be in Parliament from Monday to Thursday in order to represent the people of Skipton and Ripon. I intend to continue to immerse myself in local life and spend as much time in my home in the constituency as is consistent with attending to the business of Westminster.
2: If I am elected I will be a full-time MP, dedicated to representing all constituents in Skipton and Ripon. I will pass my business to the management team or close it down.
3: I have no other interests as I have stepped down from my previous charity roles.
4: I am married, but we do not have any children. My family and I use the NHS which has provided us with the most amazing care and help at some critical times and for which we will always be grateful.
5: I currently own a business that is based in London. I consider myself to be an entrepreneur as I set up this business in the front room of my flat, with no financial assistance, and have built it into an international business. Eighteen months ago I answered David Cameron’s call for people with real-life experience to apply to be Conservative candidates. Many people told me it is the fact that I am not a career politician that led to me winning the open primary selection process, which was open to all voters in the constituency and not just Conservatives. If elected, I genuinely believe my understanding of the business world will be a useful asset to the Skipton and Ripon constituency where the majority of jobs are in small businesses run by families or local entrepreneurs.
I have been a Director of a Social Enterprise, the Hoxton Apprentice, which seeks to give training and work opportunities to disadvantaged young people. I have also assisted the charity Training for Life on similar initiatives. This experience of working with charities at the sharp end of dealing with some of society’s most entrenched social problems has convinced me more than ever we must provide opportunities for all our citizens and that as a society we are continuing to fail large numbers of them.
With regard to the letter from Mr Graeme Hitchin regarding admissions to grammar schools in Skipton, I would like to assure him that, if elected, I will challenge vigorously any schools admissions process shown to block access to pupils of any background.
Julian Smith, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Skipton and Ripon, Churchill House, 19 Otley Street, Skipton
Sir - The first phrase that comes to mind having listened to Craven District Council leader Chris Knowles-Fitton's budget ramble is: “Self praise is no recommendation.”
It is said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and praise, although when the Craven District Council leader changes his mind from last week to this and copies North Yorkshire County Council's budget with its 2.94 per cent increase, he is treating a very serious issue with a degree of political flippancy and with a light-hearted contempt for we council tax payers.
It is not right that parking charges continue to be the obsessive target for exorbitant increases. This budget more than doubles the local parking permit from March 2009 to April 2010. It is a double insult that those unable to pay these obscene increases from static or declining incomes are now causing increased congestion on the streets of Skipton and even more misery for residents. But, of course, downtown Appletreewick is not affected.
It is beyond belief that, in the depth of the worst recession any of us has lived through, with little or no light at the end of the tunnel, this budget diverts £145,000 earmarked grant from the Government for business incentive growth and employment initiatives to be moribund in balances.
And of course, will we ever forget the television BAFTA performance of the Craven District Chief Executive Paul Shevlin, last week proudly announcing to the nation the removal of CCTV in Skipton as a budget cut measure.
What a laughing stock he has made us, not least among the toerags and criminal fraternity who now look upon Skipton as easy pickings. My motor car was vandalised this weekend. Do I send the repair bill to Mr Shevlin?
Much of the content of this budget fleeces Craven people who need to use Skipton services. It treats with contempt struggling businesses and low-income families. It is a godsend to those who pursue criminality and anti-social behaviour.
It is, without doubt, a poor budget for the people of Craven and a particularly bad budget for Skipton.
For these reasons, I am unable to support this rambling budget which ignores economic opportunity and, yet again, demands more money from council taxpayers with the clear cavalier intent of providing fewer services.
Coun Robert Heseltine (Ind), The Ginnel Place, Newmarket Street, Skipton
Sir - I write in support of your other correspondents who are dismayed at the possible disposal of Skipton Town Hall.
Properly managed, it should be a very considerable asset for Skipton and the wider district. A town of Skipton’s size is also very lucky to have such a fine educational facility as its fascinating museum.
The long-term loss of such communal amenities in order to attempt to solve a short-term problem would be to compound the mistakes caused by recent mismanagement.
The council should be seeking to maximise the benefits to be gained from its assets, rather than attempting financial quick-fixes with no thought for the community interests of residents in the future.
If it really is necessary to sell the town hall, and I am unconvinced that it is, the council should only be doing so in such a way that the hall and its museum have a sustainable, long-term, future.
Dr C Alder, Wharfe View, Grassington
Sir - Craven Museum is a very important part of our heritage. It is free for all and is for the benefit of the whole of the Craven district.
In addition to displaying artefacts from our diverse collection, it is also used as an education facility, a venue for meetings and a source of information. Regular special displays are put on covering art, archaeology costume and many other subjects. Craven District Council is considering selling the town hall, where the museum is based. It is essential our museum is kept intact. I would therefore support the concept – if needs be – of the running of the museum being transferred to a trust headed by the Skipton Civic Society to save this essential asset.
Val Cutter (member of the Museum Friends), Ive House Gardens, Gargrave
Sir - On Wednesday February 24, a group of ladies from Settle WI attended a meeting of Craven District Council.
A petition was handed over containing 949 signatures in protest against the closure of the toilets in Ashfield car park. I would like to thank all other WIs in the Ingleborough Group for supporting our campaign and the many shops and organisations in Settle who collected so many signatures on our behalf.
Sandra E Fox, president, Settle WI, Victoria Street, Settle
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