Let's shout about it!

To quote your article (Herald, November 25) “this year marks the end of a three-year programme to replace all the lights with LED lighting” – let’s shout about it then!

The new lights look fantastic and really transform the town over December, so why not mark the end of this replacement programme and have a proper switch-on like we used to? It is a real shame. The switching on of the lights is always a happy sign of the coming festive season and I’m sure for many children it’s all part of the build-up to Christmas.

In Leeds, thousands of people recently turned out to watch the city’s lights being switched on. Now I know Skipton is not a big city like Leeds, but Silsden, Barnoldswick and even the small village of Addingham, to name a few, can manage to have a proper switching-on ceremony.

Your article states that the council have decided against a switch-on, instead putting the money into the actual lighting but, come on, it doesn’t need to cost the earth. The town centre management could donate their time. I’m sure the Mayor or the leader of Craven District Council would have switched them on for free, no need for a big celebrity.

Fresh Radio would maybe have popped along for the occasion and the many independent shops of Skipton would have benefited in extra trade by staying open a bit later.

Skipton does seem to continue to thrive in this period of economic uncertainty. At least three or four new business have opened in the last few months in the town centre, combined with the award the High Street has recently won.

Surely the officers of the town council should be celebrating the new improved lights not sweeping them under the cobbles!

Peter Barton, Bay Horse Yard, Skipton

Happiness is key

Sir – How ironic that in the week when the government announces attempts to measure emotional happiness, North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust declares cuts on all counselling services throughout North Yorkshire.

How is happiness going to be measured when there will no longer be experts trained in the skills to support and testify to the experiences of those who are ill with despair? Will we no longer hear them and therefore no longer need to support them once the present waiting list has been dispensed with?

Is this the cure to unhappiness, to rid ourselves of all channels in which people can confess that they really are unhappy? What are we to do, close our eyes, put our hands over our ears and whistle a happy tune when those we encounter dare to mention the dreaded word of depression? If the key component of happiness is that of compassion, surely there should be the individuals to give it in order that we may at some point have the option of receiving it.

None of us know what the future will hold but I would prefer to be in the care of a compassionate individual with the skills to help me than in the care of telemedicine technology in which a diagnosis is achieved through a video link.

C Sunderland, Croft Terrace, Carleton

Fair not a nuisance

Sir – I very much hope the annual fair will continue in Settle Market Place. I live within sight and sound of the market place and never find its presence a nuisance or a disturbing noise. In fact I should miss it if it never came again. I like to feel people are enjoying themselves and I like to see what is happening there.

For those that do not feel as I do, perhaps they should consider that it is only there for a short time each night and each year and that there are many who do enjoy it either as participants – though I believe it is expensive – or as those who go to watch. And even if we do not like it very much ourselves, why should we be killjoys for those who do?

Apart from all this, there is the loss of that £1,000 to think about – how stupid to lose that.

Helen Lupton, Constitution Hill, Settle

No offer over sheep

Sir – With reference to the letter from Mr Verity (Craven Herald, November 18) could I just correct a factual inaccuracy relating to the Flock to Skipton sheep placed outside the Town Hall.

At no stage (as stated in Mr Verity’s letter) did any member of the council, or anyone else for that matter, offer to install anything inside the sheep for the collection of any money deposited. It is difficult to dismiss an offer of help, when no offer was made.

It was actually never the intention to use the sheep as a piggy bank. It was only following numerous comments from the public about the lack of a money slot that a decision was made to allow money to be left for the Town Mayor’s charity It is still sad that anyone would sink so low as to target such a fundraising initiative.

Dave Parker, Chief Officer and Clerk, Skipton Town Council, High Street, Skipton

Roundabout ways

Sir – There appears to be considerable confusion over two roundabouts in Skipton.

The first is at the exit to the HML building in Gargrave Road. The roundabout itself is the black and white tiled circular area. Round this there are brown bricks, then Tarmac. It is in order, and quite correct, to go straight across. The Tarmac is to allow long vehicles to turn into the Auction Mart.

The second is the roundabout near the Little Chef on the Skipton bypass. There are four exits and at each access road there are two lanes marked. If one is going to exit on the first or second roads, as you leave the roundabout, then you take the nearside lane. If taking the other two exits then you take the outside lane.

In other words coming from Gargrave and going into Skipton, one takes the nearside lane (as marked) and not the outside lane. If going from Gargrave Road (Skipton) to Gargrave, then one takes the outside lane and at the Gargrave Road (A65) use the left indicator and turn into the A65 – simple!

I cannot see where or why there should be any confusion.

Coun David Crawford, Mill Bridge, Bell Busk

Cutting remarks

Sir – Any more bright ideas to come from North Yorkshire County Council and Craven District Council, if so we are not interested. Both chief executives are way out of their depth when they have to admit it has never been more important residents are involved in decisions about council spending, in other words you the councillors are asking us the public to counsel you free of charge. Sorry I don’t have a hammer or chisel.

They talk a load of piffle. I asked both councils about barriers erected at Skipton bus station, which caused absolute chaos and were as useful as a get well card in a mortuary, less than a year after they erected an object which beggars belief costing £1.2 million – the reason remains unclear – and there it stands a useless, ugly, filthy blot on the landscape.

Now they have the cheek to tread the boards of Belle Vue Mills. How dare they taint the name of Dewhurst, they must be spinning in their graves with not a reel of cotton in sight.

Why bother calling meetings and wasting time or is it paid overtime for councillors? Why should the public put themselves out to attend when councillors think it is a waste of time?

A Craven councillor was overheard in Morrisons supermarket to say he couldn’t attend the meeting in the afternoon as he still had to shop and had this, that and the other to do and knew what it was about and that it wasn’t important.

As for asking the residents where the axe should fall you need go no further than the town hall.

Edith Heaton, Sharphaw View, Gargrave

Town hall concerns

Sir – I am sure many residents share Mr Weatherill’s concern about the ‘culture of secrecy’ etc over the district council’s property deals including the latest – the valuation of 9 High Street (Herald, November 25), especially following the sale of land at Gargrave Road at significantly below its value and the recent removal of the council’s own property strategy and disposals policy from its website.

In issue 7 of ‘Your Craven’, we were invited to view the file with ‘all the background information’ leading to the decision to acquire a 999-year lease of Belle View Mills for its new offices.

As a result of this, among other questions, I raised the lack of a RICS valuation report with the leader. He and his officers seem to be of the belief a ‘value for money assessment’ based on a restrictive scenario will suffice. They will have been advised at the time and subsequently that this is not the case and that it was overpriced, yet they pressed ahead regardless.

By the time the deal completed this ‘assessment’ would have been significantly out of date anyway. Perhaps the council’s current hurry to sell off more assets during a double-dip recession is driven by its need to find the £3.5 million it agreed to pay for that lease. How the cost of the annual maintenance and service charges for the next 999 years will be dealt with remains to be seen. How much will this decision cost the taxpayers?

Now we hear of a valuation for 9 High Street having been commissioned as part of Skipton Developments. One wonders when, and on what basis? Both are factors affecting the resulting figures. Also, as Mr Fattorini (Letters, November 25) points out: an issue is the extent of the car parking to be included; the trade-off being a negative impact on the viability of the adjoining town hall. So, the district council wants to surround the town hall with a retail development, retain the offices and an unknown amount of parking (all money-generating elements) for itself and leave the remainder (the hall, the gallery and the museum) to the town council or a charitable trust to deal with.

The knock-on effects of splitting the offices and car parking from the hall, gallery and museum must be to the significant detriment of the future viability of our town hall. Whoever takes on Skipton’s most iconic public building must be given a chance to make it successful and to provide an improved community hub the public is asking for. Therefore, the whole town hall (retaining the offices and parking) will provide a better chance of its having a viable future, and preferably without large shops built right up against its boundary!

Miss E Martin, Park Lane Terrace, Carleton

Vulnerable at risk?

Sir – I would like to draw Mr Julian Smith MP’s attention to the effects cuts will have on various groups – the cuts that he sees as “necessary to reduce the deficit”; this deficit being the result of the international crisis.

Women and families will lose out as a result from cuts in housing benefits and the freezing of child benefit, plus raising VAT. Women form more than 60 per cent of the public sector workforce – often on low wages – and face job losses.

The services to the elderly and disabled, which the county council will have to cut (very serious in this county because of high numbers of the elderly) will also affect women. As a population we live longer and women are usually the carers of the elderly.

Another group to be much affected is students. How can the government justify a cut in university teaching by 40 per cent? This strikes at the root encouraging and enabling young people to reach their potential and thus help to build a more prosperous future for the country. The plan seems to be those without rich parents cannot afford first-class education, as in the USA, so the UK will be denied ability to compete with the other countries.

I hope Mr Julian Smith MP will take heed of the many concerns raised by his constituents and reassure us he will ensure the most vulnerable members of our community are not to bear the brunt of the proposed areas to be cut in order to reduce the deficit.

Chris Rose Chair of Skipton and Ripon Labour Party, Hurrs Road, Skipton

Appalled by cruelty

Sir – I was appalled to read of the terrible injuries inflicted on Tigger, the ginger cat in Hardy Meadows in Grassington. I used to pass him most days, sitting on the wall watching the world go by, as I walked my dog down to the riverside. My dog would stop, try and out-stare him but Tigger never budged. It’s hard to believe that some low-life could carry out such a despicable attack and inflict so much pain on a defenceless animal and I am saddened that there is such a person living in Grassington. They should do the same to them if they are ever caught. As if!

Anita Potter Low Lane, Grassington

Praise for kindness

Sir – I would much appreciate it if you would say a big thank you to the lovely caring couple, who said they were from Cowling, who helped my husband and I after we had a fall in Tesco car park on Saturday morning, November 20. Also another lady and gentleman that came to our aid.

My husband has dementia and is quite a responsibility, I was taking him on a little outing around Skipton. As I wasn’t fit to drive, the couple kindly drove me and my husband back to his care home in Sutton.

It is lovely to know complete strangers can be so kind and caring. Thank you once again.

Janet Lambert, Cringles Park, Silsden

Making a point

Sir – Is it for reasons of economy that the North Yorkshire Highways authority has decided to forego punctuation in its Gargrave Road diversion signs? (GLADSTONE STREET CLOSED FOLLOW DIVERSION). If this is the case, and given the proximity of so many impressionable young people on their way to and from schools in the area, might it not be provident to encourage local businesses to sponsor punctuation in such signs?

We’re not talking about saving the semi-colon from extinction here. Judicious use of the lowly full-stop would probably do the trick.

Pauline Eyre, Raikeswood Road, Skipton