Cars are essential to Dales businesses

"The county council, as part of its five year Local Transport Plan, is committed to improving accessibility for all residents. As part of this work we aim to promote the use of local goods and services such as yours.

"It is recognised that in North Yorkshire many of us need to use the car for the majority of our journeys. However, studies have shown that even in rural areas there are journeys that are short enough to be walked or cycled.

"As part of a strategic marketing campaign, produced by an award-winning advertising agency, we have created a series of posters designed to promote the dual aims of encouragement of local centres and of reducing unnecessary car use.

"I would be very grateful, therefore, if you could find a suitable space to display the attached posters to your visitors and (perhaps more importantly) to passers-by. If you require further copies, or if you have any comments or suggestions about this campaign, then please do let me know or contact our Travel Awareness Officer Geoff Gardner at the above address."

Accompanying this letter were two glossy posters in full colour, which I was asked to display, the purpose of which is to persuade people from using their cars.

The letter purports to encourage local goods and businesses. How does it do so?

The Angel Inn is six miles from the nearest shop, in a small rural village with no bus or local transport service. Like virtually everyone else in rural North Yorkshire my business depends for its livelihood on people in motorcars. To suggest that businesses like mine should display these posters (or give them to passers by on the road, as per the letter) is sheer lunacy.

One does begin to wonder whether the people who dream up such schemes, or worse, those who authorise them, are living on the same planet.

I actually laughed when I first read the letter, believing it to be a joke, expecting some punch line at the end. Then I realised it was serious and that it is my business rate, ever increasing and now in excess of £30,000 per year, that is being used to support such rank wastage of money.

Upon making enquiries I learnt that the Travel Awareness Officer heads a team of four part time teachers no less, plus an administrative officer (full time). Can you imagine the cost of this?

The four teachers spend their time going into schools, presumably to persuade the children, who should persuade their parents, not to use their cars.

Perhaps I am a simple soul but this all rather smells to me more of an attempt at political correctness than an effort at encouraging local goods and services.

Presumably all this is part of the extremely expensive strategic marketing campaign devised by the "award winning" advertising agency, who will be rubbing their hands at the thought of the fee they will receive from an apparently naive council, so lacking in common sense and so good at spending your and my money.

Denis Watkins,

Proprietor,

Angel Inn, Hetton.

SIR - If Lancashire County Council Highways need to close the A65 temporarily at Gargrave for up to a month, perhaps they could consider some innovative alternative measures, such as subsidising rail travel along the Settle and Carlisle railway line perhaps similar to the recent £3 winter offer for local residents.

But that would be too much to hope for.

Allan Gould

Higher Halsteads, Settle.

SIR - When the main A65 road through Gargrave is closed between Easter and the Spring Bank Holiday could not the Craven District and North Yorkshire County Councils between them prevail upon Arriva to stop all the Carlisle trains in both directions at Gargrave, Saturdays included?

Closure of this road will inevitably disrupt the bus service between Settle and Skipton. If my suggestion was adopted, there might be lessons for residents of Gargrave who have never used the train for shopping in either Settle or Skipton; also for visitors, some of whom might enjoy walking the Pennine Way between Gargrave and Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

With luck there might be benefits for Arriva as well.

Gavin Martin,

Church Croft, Gargrave.

SIR - An article appeared in the Guardian on January 22 seeking the views of Skipton residents over the regional assembly, Yorkshire Forward's initiative for market towns.

One interviewed was Coun Paul English, deputy leader of Craven District Council and leader of the Liberal Democrat group.

He was quoted as saying Skipton is "dilapidated" and that he knows what "pisses off" (quote) Skipton residents.

He blames previous administrations for not spending enough in Skipton, whilst boasting of how low a council tax they could achieve - presumably something that doesn't bother him.

The article falsely claimed that for many years Craven was Conservative-controlled. In fact Conservatives controlled Craven from 1975-1986 and again for a short period from 1999 to 2001. For the rest of the time there was either no overall control (NOC) or Liberal Democrat control.

The article further goes on to say that Craven is now run by a "coalition" (sic) of Liberal Democrats and Independents. This is in fact what is happening but it is not what Craven residents thought they were voting for in 2002.

By acting as one group they have achieved an unrepresentative number of committee places. Currently the largest party are the Conservatives with 13 councillors but in a six person committee the split is two Liberal Democrats, two Independents and two Conservatives with the Liberal Democrats and so-called Independents acting as together this becomes a 4-2 split. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Coun David Crawford,

Bell Busk.

SIR - The postcodes working group of Craven District Council has declared that those of us with a North Yorkshire address and a West Yorkshire postcode are not greatly disadvantaged.

Your article of January 31 refers mainly to insurance costs linked to postcodes.

As I recall from the original article published in The Herald last year, this was not the only issue raised.

As usual, the district council fails to address the whole issue or the main issue, which for me is: I live in North Yorkshire. I do not want a West Yorkshire postcode. Period.

When postcodes were first introduced, the musical TV slogan from the GPO was "please use the postcode, you're not properly addressed without it".

Well all I can say is that I am not properly addressed with it.

So, from now on, the Keighley, West Yorkshire and BD postcode will be omitted by me until another major UK organisation decides to bring out its own version of address coding.

Come on the likes of British Gas, BT or even the Land Registry and those of you with maps showing where gas mains, telephone cables or even properties are physically located - bring out your own systems!

No, perhaps not, I could end up in Lancashire!

Steve Fowler

Airedale View, Cross Hills.

SIR - I would like to make the below response with regards to an item which appeared in your newspaper: "Police blamed as driving case is dismissed", dated January 31.

On behalf of Craven Police, I would like to apologise for the error in not having all the necessary paperwork ready which resulted in a case for dangerous driving being dismissed at Skipton Magistrates Court.

This matter has been fully looked into and I am pleased to report that measures have been put into place to improve our administrative procedures.

Every year, Western Area, which includes Craven, deals successfully with over 9,000 separate cases at all types of courts and many locations. Errors, fortunately, seldom occur but nonetheless are deeply regretted when they come to light.

Inspector Tad Nowakowski,

Skipton Police Station,

Skipton.

SIR - Floyd Schofield Haulage of Settle, a firm using at least four articulated vehicles out of Dry Rigg quarry at Helwith Bridge, employs me as a HGV driver.

I have been associated with the quarry for 23 years, working at first in the quarry then for the last six years as a driver .

As a child I remember the quarry being open 24 hours a day and this did not create a problem.

If the quarry closes, my family and I would have to move away to obtain another job, which would be sad when I have lived in the village for 42 years and generations of my family have been in the village for over a century .

"Offcumdens" should do their homework before moving into the area and ascertain the industry and resulting traffic before coming.

A statement in the Craven Herald claims that wagons go up to Horton quarries at 4am but this does not apply to Dry Rigg quarry as loading hours are 7am to 5pm.

The new proposal for loading hours at Dry Rigg are between 7.30am to 3.30pm, this means the wagons leaving at the times of schools opening and returning as the schools finish and having to negotiate rush hour traffic in large towns such as Manchester .

In addition it would only be possible for drivers to make one journey a day which would not provide a living wage.

Living at Helwith Bridge I would like to point out that trains run during the night creating noise but nobody seems to bother about that, and we are also concerned about who would take responsibility for the area should the quarry close, already there is a picnic area that is totally neglected.

There is a national shortage of good quality stone resulting in the import of many tonnes from Ireland. Floyd Schofield regularly takes stone out of Dry Rigg to every county in the country. Today we have two tipping in Flixton, Norfolk, and two tipping at Guildford, Surrey; that says how good a quality the stone is at Dry Rigg Helwith Bridge.

Alistair Palmer,

Helwith Bridge,

Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

SIR - On February 4 I parked in the car park behind the Woolly Sheep in Skipton so that I could nip round to the video store to post a DVD through the letterbox. I cannot have been more than two minutes when I returned to find two men clamping my wheel.

I could only presume that they had been waiting in the car park till I had disappeared round the comer to clamp me, as I could see the entrance most of the time. I tried to explain and reason with the men, but they told me to go over to the other side of the car park and call the number on the sign which was hanging off the wall. Up until this point I had seen no sign.

I called the number for Yorkshire Clamps and they informed me that I had to pay £90 in full or my car would be towed away. As the car park was covered in thick black ice and it was beginning to get dark, I asked if there was any chance that I could pay by debit card instead of going to a cash machine to pay with cash. I was told no and that the two men in the car would take me round to the cash till to collect the money.

At this point I was not thinking clearly and felt I had no choice but to go with the men, otherwise I would have been left in the dark with no car to get home. The men took me in their car round to the cash machine and then we returned to my car to remove the clamp.

After hearing about the letter from the lady in the Craven Herald a few weeks ago, it is clear that Dacre Son and Hartley have done nothing to investigate their relationship with Yorkshire Clamps, and the company continues to take advantage of young women alone in the car park.

Since the event I have called the Woolly Sheep, who rent the land from Dacres, as the two men advised me that it was them who had asked them to watch the land. They told me that they had had six people clamped since the weekend, most of them residents and one their managing director.

The following day I drove past the car park and found that a new sign had been displayed opposite the entrance, which I suspect had been put up to cover themselves.

I am only glad that I had the money to pay them straight away, or I could have ended up with an even bigger bill to collect my car after it had been towed away.

Miss A Walton,

Otley Road, Skipton.

SIR - I have the greatest sympathy for any individual who has fallen foul of an unscrupulous clamping firm.

However, where this method of enforcement is used properly it is to ensure that those who own the freehold of a parking space, or are otherwise entitled to use it by way of a commercial lease, have full access to that space, rather than finding the same occupied by somebody who has not paid for the use.

Surely the moral to be derived from your recent correspondents' letters is "if in doubt, do not park"!

John Cobb,

High Mill, Addingham.

SIR - Not only do we have two District Councillors telling us we must pay more to the North Yorkshire Police Authority or accept a lower level of service, we now have the chief constable no less telling us no-one would care about the level of increase for 2003/2004, adding that we get the police service we pay for.

The chief constable is definitely wrong on her first assertion and arguably wrong on her second also.

Why is it that those spending our money on our behalf, upon facing any budgetary problem, immediately demands more money or else? Furthermore, who has evidence to demonstrate that throwing even more money at an issue produces an improved, more efficient and, most importantly, effective service.

No councillors; no chief constable, please think again - there must be another way.

Michael Claxton,

Cononley Moorside.

SIR - I wish to say a big "thank you" to the crew of five firefighters from the Skipton depot who attended when we had a problem with some electric wiring which was burning at about 4 am on Tuesday morning last week.

The weather was bad, making the roads very unpleasant and very cold, but the men in question were extremely kind and very courteous, not one word of complaint at being called out at such a time for what must have been, to them, a small problem, though a major worry for us.

Firefighters in general are going through a bad time just now and though our own local servicemen are not members of the FBU their prompt attention proves how little most of us understand and appreciate their service to the general public.

Veronica Trueman,

Bay Tree Cottage, Flasby.