Letters to the Editor

SIR, - I totally agree with the comments of the parents quoted in your lead story regarding new rules for swimming baths (March13).

I am the father of two small children (Aidan is four and Rachael is two) and for the last 18 months, every Friday evening, I have been taking them swimming to Keighley Baths. It is the main opportunity I have to spend some time with my two small children, during the working week and it was a very special time that all of us looked forward to immensely.

Keighley Baths was always busy, with many fathers and young children enjoying the facilities. Now because of this new ruling, I am unable to use any of Bradford Coun-cil's swimming facilities and will be unable to do so for another two years until Rachael is four years old.

Why is this the case? Either because the council believes that I am not ca-pable of looking after my two offspring, or secondly that the lifeguards who patrol the pool are unable to monitor the safety of the swimmers.

If the latter is the case, it begs the question about their actual purpose at the poolside at all.

Of course any sensible parent recognises the danger of water-based sports to the ill-prepared and uninitiated but surely a modicum of commo sense must prevail when introducing any such mandatory ruling, particularly when other local authorities are not enforcing such similar legislation.

BERNARD CONLON

15 Ghyll Wood,

Ilkley.

Hidden agenda

SIR, - As someone who has been pictured on a number of occasions on ICAS demonstrations, I am fairly obviously convinced that traffic calming measures are required in a number of areas in Ilkley.

And while I would not like to be associated in any way with the extremist camp where the car is king and no other road user is to be considered, there are nevertheless problems with the proposed solution of speed bumps, and on Bolling Road in particular.

I will also state quite categorically that this is a situation which is being connived at quite deliberately by those in authority who are plainly against the idea of traffic calming in this area and are therefore putting forward a proposal which is designed to fail.

I was a member of Bradford's Planning and Transportation Committee for a number of years when I was a councillor, and the question of traffic calming measures was on almost every meeting's agenda, because local communities were always prsenting petitions asking for them, and mainly in the form of speed humps.

The advice from the professional officers was constant. In residential areas, their experience was invariably that once speed humps were installed they then generated as many petition signatures against them as they had originally attracted for them.

This was in the main quite simply that the constant vibrartion and thumping noise they generated at all hours of the day and night was extremely disturbing for residents. (There are also, of course, the complaints from the speeding fraternity who will drag up all sorts of lame excuses, from damage to their precious car springs to fatuous and emotional whingings about 'freedom'). There is no reason for either professional advice or conditions to have changed in the last two years. That is why you can see the alternatives in many other areas of Bradford - road narrowing and priority directions or chicanes, which force irresponsible motorists to limit their speed just as effectively.

I have long harboured the suspicion that there is at least one officer, if not more, in Bradford's traffic section who quite simply has a screw loose, because nothing else can explain some of the more bizarre and irrational proposals which have surfaced from that direction in recent years, and which the Gazette has reported.

Forget the cycle path running diagonally across a farmer's field for a moment and consider the sudden introduction of the 30mph sign mounted on a traffic island jutting out threequarters of the width of the carriageway on the outskirts of Silsden on an unlit country road. This was eventually removed after its dangers and sheer stupidity were forced into the consciousness of the traffic division.

Or that magnificent cycleway in Moor Lane, Burley-in-Wharfedale, just before the station. All nine feet of it, consisting of a cycle painted on the road and, yet again, a small traffic island with an illuminated post mounted on it in the middle of the carriageway.

I could go on and give other examples where elected members have been left quite literally tearing their hair out in frustration. It may be that the Bolling Road proposals are simply another example of this sort of irrationality.

However, in this instance I hope I will be forgiven for smelling consipiracy. We do have a hard-working and conscientious local member in Anne Hawkesworth, but sh e now needs to let people know why we are having proposals foisted upon us which are against normal professional adive in residential area and are quite clearly designed not to last.

SANDY MacPHERSON

33 Wheatley Lane,

Ben Rhydding.

Getting verse

SIR, - Various newspaper reports tell of the closure of one of Wharfedale's historic hostelries. Excuses given are equally various.

Fortunately, a group of Ben Rhydding people disagree with the present owners and in the Gazette recently called for help in trying to save the Wheatley Hotel.

There would appear to be 120-plus activists out there, no doubt with inspirational anger at their fingertips. Here's verse on and the beginning of verse two of the poem, Save Us Pub:

'A pub by

Wharfedale's pastures green,

Her gritstone scarps,

The village scene.

This rugged land

Of grouse and sheep,

Is where many locals weep.

For they have lost their drinking house,

Without a sign to its whereabouts.

On Ilkley Moor from old Vic's time

A man called Punch has dwelt.

By Ilkley Moor another Punch....'

Anger always makes for good poetic verse, so pick up thy pens and write. I expect to see verses two, three and possibly four in the coming weeks.

FRAZER IRWIN

Queen's Road,

Ilkley.

Lights folly

SIR, - Having suffered one of those irritating queues that forms on the Addingham to Ilkley road whenever there is a pleasant weekend day, I was struck by how truly ridiculous the concept of traffic lights on the outskirts of Ilkley really is.

Queues will form even further up the Addingham bypass, an already highly dangerous road, thanks to speeding motorists and the effect of slow-moving traffic joining the bypass from Addingham village.

Equally havy queueing along Coutances Way is going to put greater prssure on the Askwith/Denton/Ilkley road, likely to cause much danger to the cyclists using this otherwise pleasant country lane.

These traffic lights should receive their own red light now and be stopped.

H LIBERTTE

Bluebells,

Curly Hill,

Middleton.

Bridge hazard

SIR, - The traffic flow arrangement recently installed under the railway bridge at Ben Rhydding has created an extremely dangerous hazard.

It can only be a matter of time before there is a head-on crash there. I have witnessed three near misses in the short time the flow control has been in place.

The major problem is that due to the orientation of the road and bridge, traffic coming down the hill cannot see if anything is coming up until far too late.

The result of this is that any vehicle coming up the hill which has entered the narrowed section often cannot be seen by a vehicle coming down until it, too, has entered the section, with obvious consequences.

Secondly, the warning signs advertising that downwards traffic has right of way have only been placed at the entry to the flow section itself, which gives insufficient warning to traffic unaware of the system. This, combined with the first problem, creates further danger.

I am unaware of the reasons for creating the system in the first place, having used the bridge every day for the last two years with absolutely no problems, but, assuming there are good reasons, there should, as a minimum, be far more, and earlier, clearer warning signs or even traffic lights.

RICHARD PIDDOCKE

Five Oaks Cottage,

Ben Rhydding Drive,

Ilkley.

Wasting money

SIR, - Having read about the inflation busting increases that Bradford Council is imposing upon us I have started to take more notice upon what our money is being spent upon in Ilkley.

Is it no conicidence that just before the end of the tax year the council has started many unnecessary road projects seen in Ilkley and Ben Rydding. Roads are being re-surfaced for no good reason, and pavements andkerbstones being replaced for the sake of it.

Why couldn't the Council STOP these wasteful projects, which seems to be the Highways Department squandering its money in order to assure its large budget for next year?

With an additional extra charge being proposed to be levied upon the residents of Ilkley I am disgusted to see our money being wasted in such a fashion.

This so-called trick has been going on for years and is known by everyone for what it is, so isn't it about time the council stopped this and in return had a smaller increase in the level of our council tax or even a reduction, but then again what are the chances of that happening?

Harold Hill

9 Shannon Close,

Ilkley.

Family 'back'

SIR, - I was itrigued to read in the Gazette's preoprty review earlier this month that 'a recent report published by a consumer research group has revealed that family is making a comeback in today's society.'

I am gratified to be reassured that the human race has a future.

KEITH G HARTLEY

Hangingstone,

Haningstone Road,

Ilkley.

Itmust be spring

SIR, - Saturday, March 15, saw the first weekend evening queue back into town from the foot of the Addingham bypass.

Was this the first sign of spring?

STEVEN P RINGER

The Woods,

Maufe Way,

Ilkley.

Treating youngsters with respect

SIR, - Red Nose Day has again been a great success, sadly marred by adults who assume that every young person is up to no good. A few days before the event my son bought a can of red hair spray ready for the great day.

Outside Whoopee Party Shop in Ilkley he was accosted by two adults from the club opposite who accused him of being about to spray graffiti. Refusing to accept that they had made a mistake, they stole his can and retreated back into their club. These were adults old enough to know better, aged about 30 and 60.

His friends observing were appalled at the rudeness of these men. A large majority of our young people are great to have in our town. Please treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say. They may look threatening, but they are humans like the rest of us (most of the time) and should be treated as such.

The Rev Paul Tudge

All Saints Church,

Ilkley.