SBS boss answers planners' comments

1. The official reason given to us for the refusal is "the proposals would not, contrary to national and local development plan policies, preserve or enhance the character and appearance of the Skipton Conservation Area, or the setting of the nearby listed buildings".

May I make clear that the car parking proposed is outwith the Conservation Area and cannot be seen from any point within the Conservation Area.

It seems perverse to suggest, as your article reports, that planners should consider that the green entrance to the town is important. Have I to assume that the housing at Overdale Grange, Overdale Park and Greenacres is outwith the town.

2. Your report states that Councillor English suggested a meeting between the council and the society.

May I make your readers aware, and the planning committee, since presumably they were not advised by their officers, that prior to developing our proposal, we had meetings at chief executive level and at head of planning level to try to develop a solution which would solve our parking needs and provide benefit to the town.

During those meetings we offered to:

o Develop a park and ride car park for the use of the town;

o Develop a multi storey car park within the existing town hall car park.

The only proposal by the district council was to use the quarry for parking, a suggestion that has unacceptable health and safety risks for our staff.

We consider ourselves as responsible members of the community and, therefore, we are happy to meet with the district council at any time.

However, I suggest Councillor English gives clear instructions to officers to achieve something and not see success as no policy, no progress and no solution.

3. As I stated, we are happy to support the development of the district. We are proud of our roots and the quality people who make our organisation special.

We offered to provide signs at Craven boundaries - this was rejected since the council only wished to cover Skipton.

We contributed to the CCTV system for the town.

We are major sponsors for the developments at Sandylands Sports Centre.

We support the Tourist Information Centre and more than 200 other organisations in the town.

4. I note that the recent draft local plan shows the Craven District Council offices redesignated as residential. I assume, therefore, they intend to sell and move.

May I ask where to and how their car parking requirements will be met? I trust any new offices will not encroach on the existing sparse car parking space in the town.

5. The society had an observer at the meeting and would take this opportunity to refute certain suggestions made by councillors.

"Too many people want to drive to work (and park) in Skipton. This proposal would set a precedent. We must keep our greenery, especially on the entrance to the town."

Perhaps if the council organised public transport at economic and convenient times, this would assist.

Suspicion that this application is the "sprat to catch a mackerel". "It would not be a surprise to find that the building society has another agenda."

I would refute totally this suggestion. Unlike politicians all our proposals are transparent. We intend to create 400 new jobs over the next two years and have already publicly announced that these will not be in Skipton.

6. I also note from the same edition of your paper that the proposed new regional assembly would mean the end of Craven Council.

I hope and trust that any successor body will have more ambition and desire to create a thriving economy to bring material wellbeing to the town instead of acting as a wet blanket to initiatives and developments which aim to ensure prosperity for Craven and its citizens.

John Goodfellow,

Chief executive and director,

Skipton Building Society,

The Bailey,

Skipton.

SIR - I am only surprised that the Dorothy Perkin's display mentioned in the Craven Herald (August 22 and still in evidence a week later) has asterisks in the text of the offending clothing.

I was similarly appalled a couple of years ago while taking my primary school age sons to shop for a present to give their father. The socks and other items on display contained language which was totally unsuitable, in my opinion, in a family shop.

On raising this with the shop staff, I was told they couldn't take any action other than to allow me to add my comments in a book for this purpose, to which I would then receive a written reply.

Several weeks later and no reply, so I visited the shop again, to find that the book had "dropped down the back of the drawers" and that my comments would definitely be read and replied to.

I'm still waiting (well, not realistically) for a reply, so I now vote with my wallet and take my business elsewhere.

Burton's clearly aren't interested in selling their products to anyone old enough to be a parent, and are apparently careless of the disgust they arouse in a normal family using the High Street.

C Fairbairn,

Embsay.

SIR - I read with incredulity your report on "fouling offenders" published in the Craven Herald on August 29. Three weeks ago I moved to Craven from Cornwall where councils and its taxpayers seem to have the balance in proportion as to how monies should be spent.

To read that Craven District Council would appear to have its priorities concentrated on "dog fouling" is quite absurd and to note some of the suggestions made by Polly English takes me into the realms of stupidity if she seriously suggests the pavements in "hotspots" be painted every two to three metres with symbols.

I am a dog owner - we walk very early morning and late at night for up to two hours around the locality and I can honestly say I have yet to see any evidence of this "heinous" crime.

What I do see, however, are examples of "equine excrement of extreme exception" - up to seven yards in length - varying in the state of maturity from "today" to "nearly past it for the rose garden".

At least dogs, including mine, appear to do it on the spot and not on the move as horses do. Perhaps Polly English could suggest symbols on the footpath, every six to seven yards, such as "please halt your horse when heaving" or "nappies for nags".

Your report also fails to mention the cost of the army of painters employed in pursuing her suggestion of painting pavements - I really cannot believe I read such a ridiculous suggestion. What next? Symbols for litter, parking, no parking etc.

Craven Council, please get real. Concentrate your minds on issues that matter, not the peripheries which "fritter" taxpayers' money.

Martin Pollitt,

Chapel Hill,

Salterforth.

SIR - Your diarist (A Craven Diary, August 29) requests solutions to the mystery of Morris dancing.

The "Moorish" theory, which claims that Morris dancing is not British at all, but was imported from North Africa, is now rightly discredited.

It is usually put forward by the sort of person (depressingly common) who is embarrassed by the culture of this country, and wants to see it replaced by a bland international culture of Euros, kilometres and the like.

Nearly as depressing, however, are Morris Men who assume their pastime started "when a few chaps in a pub got bored and began to lark about".

Morris dancing is obviously a very old practice and it contains clues within it as to its origins.

For example, it is a spring and summer dance and as such possibly developed from extremely ancient seasonal fertility dances.

The fact that it is performed by a team (or "side") and is not open to just anyone joining in, also suggests a ritual origin.

Shamanic dancers, from Siberia to South Africa, still perform to crowds of onlookers as they attempt to contact the spirits of ancestors or ensure good fortune in hunting.

Morris dancing seems to be a relic or fossil of a similar sort of ritual event - quite possibly performed by British tribes in very remote times.

Shamans in primitive cultures are often disguised - with paints or head-dresses - and so are Morris dancers. When the Flag Crackers of Craven defy the diktats of political correctness and black up, they are proving the origins of the word "Morris": from old British mawr meaning great and rhith meaning disguise or illusion.

In this Great Disguise they act out a primitive mythological play whose meaning we can now only dimly discern.

No doubt modern members of the Flag Crackers are simply having a good time; but the ritual dance they re-enact is very old and very British.

Robert Hawley,

Belgrave Street,

Skipton.

SIR - Regarding Mrs Smith's letter in last Friday's Craven Herald I have watched the canal bridge in operation and it is impressive - when working!

I would say the complaints about the breakdowns were not "snide" but just very factual, and as to being "petty", a pedestrian stuck on the other side who couldn't get home would certainly have an axe to grind!

I wonder why the bridge never sticks in the other position (ie. only the road usable) - what would the canal users say then?

All the people I have spoken to are sincerely fed up with these breakdowns, especially now it's four months since installation at an enormous cost of council money. We are certainly not a small minority!

I was out walking a few weeks ago and was watching the bridge in operation when it jammed open to canal users, but the barriers were open as well - very dangerous apparently!

No mobile phones were handy so I walked home and phoned British Waterways (by the way there were no instructions for road users in this event or how to report a fault).

Thankfully I was on the Bradley side when the bridge jammed - no more walks for me over the other side.

Shirley Harrison,

Raines Drive,

Bradley.

SIR - What a treat to see Carleton Old Hall so wonderfully re-built reflecting its 16th century origins. All those involved in the project from the planners, councillors, architects and of course, the builder and owner Mr Wooler, are to be congratulated on producing a fine building, which future generations will admire.

Now, can a similar team get together and come up with something of which we can be proud to replace at least two of the worst buildings in central Skipton; the council's offices at the top of the High Street (the old clinic) and that occupied by Superdrug next door to Woolworths.

We can see at Carleton, that given the will, the expertise is still there to construct beautiful buildings and not utilitarian monstrosities.

JM Robinson,

Pasture Road,

Embsay.

SIR - As a resident of Carleton Road and a regular user of the wonderful new pedestrian crossing, can someone please answer a persistent question from my four-year-old daughter: "Why does the green man not beep?"

I cannot think of any more replies and I am sure there is a proper answer.

She has two theories, the first that the beep has been stolen, and the second, someone has taken the batteries out!

Mrs Large and Chloe,

Carleton Road,

Skipton.