Old rail line could have big future

He raises, by implication, the need to have adequate access to the Dales, an access which can be restored by this railway at little additional cost.

It has been necessary to spend a large sum of money to enable the line to carry stone traffic. This is seen to be in the public interest.

It is in the same public interest to be bold and imaginative in reducing the heavy road traffic on minor country roads.

There is an additional bonus. The Bolton Abbey line terminates at Embsay, although there is, I believe, a long term plan to extend this to Skipton. This would mean restoring Embsay junction and relaying track into platform six at Skipton.

We are told that the cost would be excessive. We were told the same a decade or so ago with regard to Ribblehead Viaduct. It was repaired at a fraction of the original estimate.

I fear there is a "real" cost and an "official" cost. We may be certain, though, that it would be far more costly to bring many miles of country roads to the standards needed to cope with the traffic using them.

Also, the environmental impact of the railway is minimal.

We need to preserve the Dales yet allow the public to enjoy them. I am convinced that something along the lines suggested would go a long way to making this possible. For this reason I believe that a viability study be taken as a matter of urgency.

Rev Donald Bird,

Park Place, Hellifield.

SIR - Like many other rail commuters I often have time to reflect on my surroundings and would like to congratulate Skipton Station on the appearance of the station platforms.

Flower baskets adorn the posts, hand carts are an abundance of colour and glorious spring and summer plants spill out from old fashioned brazier baskets.

But look down and the platforms tell another story whereby earlier this year we were honoured to have Prince Charles as a visitor to the locality and, of course, security must have been a major concern.

Litter bins which used to sit on the station platform were whisked away, not because they were an eyesore; they were in fact very smart in their black and gold regalia, but presumably because they might have harboured dangers to our royal visitor.

But what happened when he left, where have all the litter bins gone?

Watching and speaking to a gentleman from Jarvis (?) one morning on his daily round of litter picking from the station platform prompted me to think what a soul destroying job he must have and how much easier it would be if the bins were reinstated.

The gentleman in question does an excellent job and the sight of him should remind us that he does not provide a personal service for the likes of you and me so that we can drop our rubbish where we please, but a service for commuters as a whole and visitors to Skipton, helping us to enjoy our surroundings.

So, come on, the powers that be at Skipton Station, make life easier for someone who makes our lives cleaner and brighter. Bring back the litter bins and more importantly, commuters please use them!

L Brotherton,

Short Lee Lane, Skipton.

Not compulsory

SIR - Doctor Fleming is worthy of support for his column following the rather sardonic comments of Pauline Eyre (Lettrs July 19.)

He is, in a small way, doing a service to the good people of Craven. To provide a weekly column is a demand upon one person's resources to maintain a consistent standard even for the professional writer. The column supplies information for the public and provides insight to various aspects of medicine.

His article in the same issue of the Craven Herald is a relevant illustration. Most will be aware of a drug problem; how many can recognise the signs in addicts, or be aware of some of the consequences? I can understand his sadness for the one who had overdosed on a common drug, having officiated at the funeral of one who also died in such circumstances.

Doctor Fleming's comments, on many ordinary medical issues, will have guided and reassured a number who have been worried, but not had courage to ask too many questions.

Anyone involved in services to members of the public will know frustration and irritation. Those are human situations we may all experience many times; medical personnel are not singularly exempt.

The good doctor is being honest. It does not need much imagination to realise what medics must feel about some of the problems they encounter. When, as patients, we recognise the humanity of those who serve us, it would make their work more comfortable.

To write technical subjects has difficulties for style which are not found in general non-fiction. Scientific writers are used to their own forms.

To present difficult material for the non-technical reader is no simple exercise. Some who write have tendencies to patronise or dumb-down. Dr Fleming does not do this; he makes the medical bits reasonably clear and for this he has to be commended.

When all said and done it is not compulsory reading.

Frank Winn,

Long Meadow, Skipton.

SIR - I am sad to hear of the call-up of reservists to be ready to follow the USA into war against Iraq.This we did against Afghanistan where, in spite of the carnage, no major Al Qaeda leader has been captured.

No doubt the USA wants compliant regimes in oil rich areas as it contemplates doing "a Beeching" on its rail network but Iraq has no proven connection with September 11.

Has Saddam been developing weapons of mass destruction? So have we and at least five other nations.

The anthrax scare? Spores from Iraq? No, as I understand it the American military laboratories.

Two certain results of our joining an attack on Iraq, apart from more civilian deaths and maimings, will be increasing hostility between east and west and a rallying of support for Saddam Hussein in his own country.

Charles Trevor,

Brooklyn, Threshfield.

SIR - I am a royalist and think that Queen Elizabeth has done a difficult job very well. But if only she could unbend.

At the Jubilee celebrations outside Buckingham Palace, she and the Duke of Edinburgh were invited by a boy and girl to join them in the Palace forecourt. Why did she not allow herself to be led by the hand instead of just following? (She did have her gloves on). The watching world would have applauded.

Once again on the opening of the Commonwealth Games she had the chance to touch the tiny girl who, along with David Beckham, presented the baton. Bending to greet the child with maybe a pat on her head. Another missed opportunity.

Diana showed her how it was done.

HG Lees,

Barnstead, Newhouses.

SIR - Having had the opportunity to study the item concerning the extension of the life of quarries near Settle (Craven Herald, July 19), several of the points covered give cause for alarm.

Tarmac Northern, operators of Helwith Bridge quarry, state that they "will continue with early morning and Saturday deliveries".

They also make the point that "if early morning traffic is delayed, peak traffic would occur as Settle is coming alive, potentially at a time when school children are moving around".

These statements show either a total lack of understanding by the quarry operators of the problems caused by quarry vehicles in Settle, or complete contempt for the town and its inhabitants.

Firstly, early truck movements (normally starting at around 4am), cause severe sleep disruption to many Settle residents, as my thick wad of letters from desperate residents testifies. A lady living in Market Place counted 11 lorries between 4.15 and 5am.

On the second point, I really wonder if the Tarmac Northern company are living on the same planet as the rest of us. A visit to Settle town centre at any time of day will show that the flow of heavy quarry trucks is continuous. I am frequently in the town during the periods when large amounts of school children are walking to and from school, and the procession of lorry convoys, passing within inches of the youngsters, is ceaseless.

Lafarge Aggregates and Tarmac Northern want to extend the lives of their quarries, presumably to increase their profits. No amount of "consultations" or "quarry open -days" can relieve these companies of their responsibilities. It is up to them to provide a solution to this problem.

Andrew Fawcett,

Trucks out of Settle Action Group,

Skipton Road, Settle.

SIR - I am writing to enquire why persons seem to take great pleasure in complaining about the actions of Skipton market traders?

We recently had Coun Paul English complaining that almost no market traders wore medieval costume for the charity Christmas markets. The fact of the matter is that of the 60 plus stalls, all but two were attended by someone in costume.

Why is it no comment was made about the shops, pubs, cafes etc where the figures were reversed?

Now this week we find Coun Marcia Turner has accused us of hammering nails and attaching awnings to High Street trees.

The facts are that this was done by persons present and working at Skipton Sheep day, an event, we would point out, organised by Skipton Town Council.

Yes Coun Turner, the bylaws are being adhered to and are checked on a daily basis by the market officer.

Please, please check the facts before accusing us of anything else. In most cases it only takes a phone call.

Ron Knox,

Secretary,

Skipton Market Traders.

SIR - Yorwaste may be "celebrating" winning a £5 million contract that will see Bradford's rubbish being dumped at Skibeden but we hapless council tax payers of Skipton are being taken for a ride.

What right has this fat cat private company to go out and offer to take the waste from Bradford - or anywhere else outside Craven for that matter - for money and dump it in our back yard.

Skipton is not a Bradford satellite. That city should find its own facilities within its own boundary.

Does no-one care about the pollution that will be caused by lorries trucking 70,000 tonnes of waste a year through Craven District to Skipton? Allowing Bradford's garbage to be dumped in Skibeden will hasten the day this landfill site is full. What happens then?

I would have thought Craven and Skipton district and county councillors would have been to the barricades to stop this company but their silence is deafening.

John Thorpe,

Cross Street, Skipton.

SIR - Perhaps the start of the long summer school holiday is not the wisest of timing to be seeking families to host or support the hosts of the children coming to us in September for a month from the city of Mogilev in Belarus.

Mogilev is just one of the places that received contamination over 16 years ago when the accident at Chernobyl sent clouds of radiated dust into the atmosphere in and around the country of Belarus.

Today the disaster has escalated. Due to the political scene, the enormous amount of pollutants escaping from the plants and factories in the city and the continuing driving poverty the situation is, if anything, worse for the children of today.

So perhaps this is the right time to ask the readers of the Craven Herald to help us for, whilst our children will be experiencing long days out in the fresh healthy air, and many of them will be off on holiday abroad or to the sea-side, for the Children of Chernobyl this would be a luxury undreamt of.

These children too are on the long summer vacation and all too often they are exceedingly hot summers but not for them will they store up all the good things that the summer school holiday brings in order to help them face the often bitterly cold winter ahead of them.

So the month that they spend here in and around Settle from September 20 to October 22 is vital to help build up their damaged immune systems and to see them through the coughs and colds and childish illnesses that our children cope with much more easily but which for the children from Mogilev can be very debilitating and often serious.

Without your readers' help the Settle Friends of Chernobyl's Children cannot continue the work it has set out to accomplish. We need families to open their hearts and to accept a child into the warmth of their family life for one month a year. Others who can offer to support that family by shouldering when needed some of the responsibility.

You would not be coping on your own for you will have the support of the organisation and families who already "wear the tee-shirt", to help you.

So please do contact me and I can tell you much more of the involvement of hosting, believe me you will never regret opening your heart to a child still facing the ongoing effects of that day in April when at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station all hell was let loose.

Deirdre Cokell,

Settle Friends of Chernobyl's Children,

Falcon Close, Settle.

SIR - Last Saturday the people of Embsay, Eastby and other villages around Skipton opened their hearts and their pockets whilst attending a garden party at Hawlands in aid of the Sarah McKie Memorial Fund.

Despite the rain the musicians played, the tombola ran and ran, and the bidders at the auction overwhelmed everyone present with their generosity.

The whole event was put together through the support and kindness of so many individuals and organisations who realise the importance of uniting at national and local levels in the fight against cancer.

There were a few organisations like Thorntons Chocolates, who felt that they should have no local commitment in these circumstances and played their "national company" card, but fortunately they were in a tiny minority.

This is just to say thank-you in the biggest possible way to all those who attended and to those who gave donations and prizes, which helped us to raise well over £6,000 for the Breast Cancer Unit at Airedale Hospital via the fund. Thanks are due also to the army of people who prepared the food, served the booze, loaned and erected marquees, helped on the day itself and then helped to clear up afterwards. Thank-you so very much.

David Fletcher,

Hawlands,

Eastby.

SIR - I have received a letter today from Compassion in World Farming telling me that the live exports of animals has restarted.

Two thousand five hundred lambs between two and three months old were exported from Dover on July 15, en route to Holland - and then on to France, Italy or Spain for slaughter.

British farmers have succumbed to the temptation of an extra £3 per head to take advantage of this cruel and evil trade.

During the foot and mouth epidemic last year we supported British farmers both morally and financially but I feel that by supporting this they lose a lot of support.

Anyone who supports CIWF can ring them on their hot line for an information pack "Ban live exports". The number is 01730 237375. I hope many people will do just this.

Jean Cookson,

Yealand Avenue,

Giggleswick.

Editor's note: We have received two further very similar letters on the same subject.