Letters to the Editor

SIR, - I was rather disappointed with the negative stance taken by your newspaper with regard to the broadband project announced last week.

Whilst we understand the concerns of the LS29.NET group, this project is excellent news for the thousands of homes and businesses in West Yorkshire, many of whom may have to wait for year before getting access to affordable broadband.

In addition, 450 businesses in the area will receive grants of up to £300 towards the cost of broadband, backed up by help from Business Link for West Yorkshire to ensure that they are able to make the most of their broadband connection.

Your report suggests that Yorkshire Forward is 'bankrolling BT' on this project. This is not the case at all; ther is no financial relationship between Yorkshire Forward and BT and our support is not tied to BT in any way. They are simply reacting to our, and many other public sector interventions in ICT and broadband in the local area.

Yorkshire Forward's investment is aimed at ensuring businesses use broadband - we do not care which technology they use as long as it meets their needs. Businesses receiving the grant in Burley-in-Wharfedale are perfectly entitled to use LS29.NET's solution and, as such, this could support LS29.NET's marketing effort.

Yorkshire Forward has to date had a policy of not funding broadband infrastructure. Our support has been entirely directed at stimulating demand and using this demand to encourage investment and competition in the broadband market.

When Mr Palmer contacted Yorkshire Forward in March this year, he simply asked for 'capital funding to purchase equipment' to set up a wireless broadband network. Our response was that we did not have any finding for that type of project at that time.

This is still the case, although we are reviewing this for the more remote rural areas.

Yorkshire Forward is keen to support the development of broadband across the region an, in particular, to ensure that it is used to drive up the performance of our economy and with more than 90 per cent of the population having access to affordable technology before the end of this year, we are really in a position to move forward.

MIKE PITTS

E Business and Broadband

Manager,

Yorkshire Forward.

Lemmings issue

SIR, - The refreshing letter in the Gazette of August 11 ('Not the answer') gives hope for reason over some of Ilkley's traffic problems.

Local people have long felt that any solution should start with controlling pedestrian movement over the long, two-part crossing at the Brook Street/The Grove intersection (and to some extent the one near the station).

People pour over like lemmings, especially after a train has arrived. Their antics merit a television programme and I am surprised that none of our local talent has taken it up - all very funny, unless you are a driver that day and get caught in the snarl-up. Traffic then builds up in all directions, even along Leeds Road, Church Street and beyond.

There will be a furore to beat the one at Burley Woodhead once people see the work beginning, so the simple solution of a temporary layout to provide a model which can be amended before implementation could save a lot of money and prevent our taxes rising still further above our pension/cost of living ones.

We have a fine example of consultation working at the moment over the Coronation Hospital issue, where those who attended the meetings seem to have been listened to, but I have not heard of any feedback from any traffic plan meetings. Was any published?

Other problems might then be highlighted and we might just get a pedestrian phase at our original lights at the A65/Brook Street intersection, and also a filter system similar to the one by Booths to allow traffic to turn as it has to off the main road.

A roundabout might have been enough at the Wheatley Lane/A65 turning and it must be the newcomers who want lights at the Victoria Avenue corner. The rest of us have managed for years.

Hindsight is a great teacher but let's not give it a chance this time.

LOCAL CAR DRIVER

Ilkley

(Name and address supplied).

Pensions scandal

SIR, - Instead of concentrating on weaselling his way out of the responsibility for the death of Dr David Kelly, Tony Blair would be better advised to try to sort out the mess he has got the country into. There is plenty to sort out - asylum, crime, health and education to mention but a few.

However, there is no bigger crisis caused by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown than pensions. Since launching a £5 billion stealth tax on pensions when coming into office, Labour has presided over a national scandal.

Company pension schemes are in a huge deficit. Indeed some have gone under altogether and many are closed to new employees. Many workers now realise they will not now get what they expected when they retire and will have to work longer; state pensioners still get a raw deal and now Labour have proposed a new tax on widows.

In fact, it seems the only people guaranteed to get generous pensions are Government Ministers!

Instead of relying on more spin to save his skin, Mr Blair should reflect on the long-term damage he has done to current and future pensioners and be ashamed of himself.

Philip Davies

Prospective Conservative

Parliamentary Candidate,

Shipley.

Child abuse

SIR, - As the local representative for UNICEF UK, I would like to draw attention to a human rights abuse that could be destroying the lives of children living right here in our local community - child trafficking - an issue which is uppermost in our minds after the recent reports about Nigerian boy 'Adam' so tragically killed.

With more than one million unwilling victims trafficked every year around the globe, UNICEF's new End Child Exploitation campaign is helping those children who have been transported like commercial goods across borders and exploited on arrival, often for sex work.

One 12-year-old girl, for example, fled from her abusive father in Romania, only to be repeatedly resold and prostituted in Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Albania and Italy. Eventually brought to the UK, she was prostituted and beaten for six months before escaping.

Other children are forced to carry out domestic labour or are used for illegal activities. Eight-year-old Victorial Climbi, sent to England from the Ivory Coast, was used for benefit fraud and subjected to an horrific catalogue of neglect, malnutrition and physical abuse by her great aunt.

Victoria was beaten, burned with cigarettes and forced to sleep in a bin liner inside an empty bath. She died from hypothermia and malnutrition in a London hospital in February 2000.

Thousands of children are probably trafficked to the UK every year and innocent victims are being discovered in counties and cities all over the UK. In an effort to stay ahead of the authorities, traffickers are seeking new destinations for their young victims, and these could include our local area.

UNICEF is urging the Government to provide care and protection for the victims, including safe houses across the country, counselling and education. We also want the Government to make it illegal to traffic a child for any purpose.

By visiting our website at (www.endchildexploitation.org.uk) readers can find out more, join our network of campaign supporters, donate and take action. We are aiming to create a paper chain of at least 5,000 links that will be used to raise public awareness about the horrors of child exploitation, and this can be signed online.

Alongside this we are seeking to raise £5 million to support practical programmes to protect children from exploitation. Those wanting to donate can write to me at UNICEF, End Child Exploitation, PO Box 1800, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S6 4TE.

Thousands of children are silently suffering at the hands of traffickers. They are out of sight but must not remain out of our minds. I do hope your readers will take part in the End Child Exploitation Campaign to help combat child exploitation.

Louis Coles

Regional Fundraising Manager,

UNICEF (North East).

Adoption plea

SIR, - Adoption-Yorkshire, the adoption service of Catholic Care, based in Leeds, an adoption agency which accepts applications from people of any or no religion, is seeking adoptive parents in the Ilkley area. This is part of the build-up to Adoption Week, which will start in October.

Adoption-Yorkshire is the oldest agency, having been involved in adoption for more than 75 years. The focus in recent years has been on developing expertise in placing babies with Down's Syndrome with family groups of three children and children six years and over.

Vera Ogden of Adoption-Yorkshire says that there are many myths around, such as that you are too old at 40 years of age to adopt, when the opposite is true. It is anticipated that by the time adoptive parents are 60 years old, their adopted child would be 18 years old. Therefore, it is possible, and happens, that parents 50 years old are able to adopt a child of eight years.

Vera Ogden says that adopting a child can be very rewarding, but nonetheless can also be a demanding and challenging experience because many of the children will have had a troubled, unhappy early life. Nowadays it is recognised that some of these children may require specialist help and their adoptive parents extra support,.

People in the Ilkley area are being encouraged to find out more about adopting children by either telephoning (0808) 1442650, or visiting www.adoption-yorkshire.org.uk.

Vera Ogden

Adoption Team Leader,

Adoption-Yorkshire