Mobile phone law not tough enough

This morning, Tuesday February 27, I listened to a radio programme confirming the clear link between road accidents and driving whilst using a mobile phone, and announcing the new penalties for so doing which are in force from today: a £60 fine and three points on your licence.

The programme went on to discuss whether or not these penalties were appropriate to the offence and would act as a deterrent, and it included comment from a mother whose daughter had been killed by a motorist who chose to drive and use a mobile phone at the same time.

A £60 fine and three points seemed somewhat trivial when listening to the sad and moving account of this woman's loss. Let's face it, the new fine and three points will be passing inconveniences to most people, unlike that lady's daughter whose life cannot be regained, and whose parents will have to bear their loss for the rest of their own lives.

Shortly after listening to the above programme, I opened a letter from the Television Licensing Authority telling me that if I chose to operate a television without a licence, I could be prosecuted and fined £1,000.

We often hear that the law is an ass, and you have to ask how the law makers equate a £60 fine for driving a potentially lethal weapon dangerously and as a threat to others, with a £1,000 fine for watching a television without a licence.

Mark Willingham Riverside Walk, Airton.

No longer needed

SIR - I read with particular interest David Joy's article (Craven Herald February 23) on the signs and protection works associated with the River Gauging Station on Hebden Beck.

My connection with the gauging station goes back to 1965 when I joined the Craven Water Board as the senior engineer responsible for new-works development. At that time, the Craven Water Board was planning to develop a new local supply using water abstracted from the mine workings at Lanshaw Level, which is just upstream of where the gauging station is now located; and the river authority needed more hydraulic data in order to justify the issuing of an abstraction licence to the board.

To satisfy this need, the Craven Water Board constructed the gauging station which comprised an innovative Flat Vee Crump weir and its associated level recording equipment. One of my personal involvements at this stage was setting out the level of the stainless steel crest capping, before it was concreted in.

The actual water supply works did eventually proceed during the late 1960s, and included a softening and basic water treatment works, and a new covered service reservoir near Hole Bottom.

However, following reorganisation of the water industry, and the resulting rationalisation of water supplies throughout the Yorkshire Water area, many smaller uneconomical sources, such as the one in Hebden Ghyll were abandoned.

The original need and justification for the gauging station on Hebden Beck, appears therefore, not to exist anymore. So why is it still operating? Unless, the Environmental Agency requires it just for academic purposes?

If the gauging station site is to be kept safe without signs, why not decommission it, and reinstate the beck and the surrounding area, JRM Crossley, jrmcrossley@uwclub.net

Use post office

SIR - A few weeks ago you printed a letter from a reader complaining that, from May 1, payment of a BT telephone bill by cheque will incur a charge of £4.50.

What she should do is pay the bill at the Post Office, making the cheque payable to Post Office Ltd. Result - no surcharge.

BT bills can still be paid at the Post Office, even though this is not stated on the reverse of the bill, in fact the Post Office and BT have just agreed a new five year deal for the payment of bills.

Bryan Morgan, Sub Postmaster, Litton Post Office

Political reality

SIR - Your correspondent Hazel Bulcock (Craven Herald Letters, February 23) clearly does not have a good grasp of politics.

The Conservatives abstained from supporting a 3.9 per cent increase for Craven District Council because they don't agree with it! Council tax has gone up by 90 per cent since 1997, whilst the Retail Prices Index has gone up by 30 per cent.

The Conservatives are well aware that the Independents (sic) and Liberal Democrats act together as an alliance and so there was no point in merely voting against the 3.9 per cent. Had Mrs Bulcock been present the next day at the adjourned council meeting, she would have seen the combined precept voted through without opposition.

So far as Skipton Hospital is concerned, what Coun Knowles-Fitton said was quite correct. This did not stop him and the whole council from voting in support of a motion to let the PCT know that Craven will not be happy if they close Skipton General Hospital, a decision which would go against previous promises made.

Mrs Bulcock should know that Conservatives deliver lower council taxes than the Alliance and they are as determined as the Alliance to keep Skipton General Hospital open.

Coun David Crawford, Bell Busk, Skipton.

Traffic myth

SIR - It really is time that the myth that traffic on Gargrave Road will increase hugely if HML moved there is buried. It is far more likely that there will be a decrease in traffic in other built-up areas of Skipton.

Let me spell it out for the scaremongers who keep talking about all the traffic passing schools and playgroups on Gargrave Road and Water Street.

Imagine if the building goes ahead. How would people travelling by car get to the site? Certainly not by crawling through the High Street at peak times. As any motorist will tell you the best way to the auction mart site is: From Ilkley and Leeds - simply stay on the bypass and come off at the Gargrave Road roundabout. To get to HML now they would come down Otley Road and through the town centre.

From Grassington - turn right on to the bypass and come off at the Gargrave Road roundabout. To get to HML now they would come down Grassington Road and through the town centre.

From Lancashire and north Craven - turn off at the roundabout. To get to HML now they would come down Gargrave Road and through the town centre.

From Keighley - stay on the bypass and come off at the Gargrave Road roundabout. To get to HML now they would come up Keighley Road and through the town centre.

Even people living in east Skipton such as the Regents estate and perhaps even Shortbank Road, might prefer the relative quiet of the bypass. In all these cases motorists will avoid all but the last 50 yards of Gargrave Road.

If you don't believe these figures, ask yourself how many Land Rovers dragging a livestock trailer to the auction mart do you see in the town centre these days? And how many did you see a few years ago when the auction mart site was on Broughton Road?

Given the figures in the Craven Herald that more HML workers live outside Skipton than inside the town, then it is obvious that there will actually be a reduction of traffic in the town centre.

The claims that there will be a severe detrimental impact on the "terrible" traffic problems on Gargrave Road defies logic.

The objectors would be better advised trying to overturn the decision using arguments about developing on an open field rather than talking nonsense about increased traffic on Gargrave Road.

Steve Dobson, Keighley Road, Skipton.

Disconsolate

SIR - Lamenting the disappearance of the English countryside is usually the first refuge of the desperate politician, but after reading about the proposal by Whitbread Group plc to drop a Premier Travel Inn on to Gargrave, I found myself staring out of the window in a disconsolate mood.

This proposal is emblematic of the CDC's approach to expansion in and around Skipton (and Craven).

Nationally, there is an all out assault on green field/belt sites, which are cheaper for developers to build on (even "brown field" sites can now, thanks to the government, be green, eg your garden). Once a site is secured, often with some sort of kickback to the local council, the only criteria the developers follow are how to maximise profits.

Generally councils, like businesses, work to the adage of expand or die; in the age of global warming, expand and die is a more realistic, albeit gloomy, signpost for the future.

Development as the piecemeal erosion of "marginal" green field sites brings more congestion, more car parks, more pollution, more noise, less countryside, and greater pressure in a few years' time, to jump the fence (or bypass) to where the grass is even greener.

Attracting people and businesses to Skipton and the Dales is one thing, but CDC needs a more radical plan to utilise the built environment that already exists. Without such a plan, which might dictate to businesses and developers rather than go to them cap in hand, and without our resistance, we are all part of the disappearance of one of England's greatest assets.

Dr Bruce McLeod, Otterburn, Skipton.

Home truths

SIR - Mr AJA Smith of Glusburn, (Letters February 23) makes very heavy weather of blaming the European Union for reductions in services in Craven. I am afraid the responsibility lies much closer to home.

It is our own government which is insisting that it will not continue to subsidise the present network of Post Offices.

It is the Government's policy of merging patient care trusts which has landed the North Yorkshire and York PCT with the biggest deficit in England - inherited almost entirely from the former York and Selby and Scarborough and Whitby areas.

It is the Government's insistence of rushing implementation of the most complex option for a new system of funding farmers before making sure the Rural Payments Service was capable of delivering it (and, for that matter, rushing implementation of tax credits before making sure it could make the system work).

It is the Government's re-direction of funding which has put pressure on Craven College.

It is the Government which determined to rush into merger of police forces - and then bailed out just in time.

It is the Government which is pushing up the costs of public transport while lecturing us on the need to cut the use of our cars.

I am sorry Mr Smith, but an obsessive dislike of the European Union is not a substitute for recognising the hard reality which is the buck for the erosion of services in rural areas stops very firmly with our own British Government.

David Curry MP, House of Commons, Westminster.

Uplifting evening

SIR - I wrote to tell you of a most wonderful evening of February 16 this year.

I was invited by one of my closest friends to attend the village pantomime in Gargrave as her youngest daughter was in the chorus.

The evening was so uplifting, full of music, laughter, singing and dancing, everything that I experienced as a young child myself when I was a member myself of a village pantomime cast.

It was so nice to see that things like this still existed, especially in the world we live in now. My praise goes to all who performed and everyone who took part in organising such a memorable event.

I am sure I speak for all who attend. Everyone I spoke to had a lovely time from my daughter aged 21 to older grandparents, an evening for all.

Elaine L Watts, Farnhill.

Water power

SIR - I was delighted to see in last week's Craven Herald that North Yorkshire County Council is focusing on local responses to climate change.

Could you enlighten readers further on the Nottingham Declaration?

Involving schools and school children in our response makes good sense as they will be most affected and I wish Emma Casson well in her new job and have two suggestions that she might like to consider: 1 Encourage all secondary schools to view the excellent film "An Inconvenient Truth" featuring Al Gore who is working tirelessly to alert the world to the alarming evidence of the reality and danger of global warming and the measures we need to take to minimise the damage. Parents might also be invited to view it.

2 Inspire some school - maybe Skipton Girls High with its new emphasis on engineering - to research the historical local use of water power which kick started the industrial revolution, and to explore the familiarity of combining traditional and modern technology to re-harness our fast flooding streams and rivers once more.

How great it would be to see the ugly ruined power station on the Wharfe at Linton refurbished and contributing to a sustainable future.

In a phone conversation with Powergen, I was assured that they would consider seriously investing money in such a project if well thought out and backed by the local community.

Anne Marsden, Hardy Meadows, Grassington.

Fond thanks

SIR - May I use the columns of the Craven Herald to send out a humble and grateful thank you to staff, governors, children, parents and friends for the events, gifts and kind words received at my retirement.

Such were the numbers that it would take many weeks to personally thank everyone.

John Collings, Former Head Teacher, Greatwood Primary School Skipton.