Supermarket has harmed our trade

People are surprised when I tell them that Booths has had a terrible effect on trade in the town.

The obvious comment made is: "But Booths don't sell your stuff (products)".

My reply is "people drive to Booths and park, they do their shopping in Booths and drive away. The car parking at Booths is free, people generally are too idle to walk up into the town and will not drive into the town because they have to pay 50p per hour to park on Craven District Council car parks. If the public does not come into the town they cannot look into the shops and see what is for sale. If they don't see what products traders have for sale they are not going to buy them."

It has been pointed out to me, by another trader, that now that the primary school has moved out of the town centre to the Booths site we don't get the little flurry of trade between 3.15pm and 4.15pm when mums and children were in the town.

Instead they go down to Bond Lane, meet their children from school and if mums need to shop they go straight into Booths.

The children will buy their sweets, crisps etc from Booths. This is a double whammy. What a stroke of genius. Build a supermarket, don't charge for parking and build a school on the same site.

I am told that at Booths in Kirkby Lonsdale patrons pay for the car park and their money is refunded only if they spend £5 in the store.

I know that there is something of a recession in the country generally, but my takings are down by five per cent on 2001 figures when we were stricken by foot and mouth disease, and are down by almost 20 per cent on the year 2000.

Only one circumstance has changed in that time. My business does not depend on tourist trade, most of my business is done with local people and those travelling from outlying towns.

Booths gives money to all sorts of causes and charities. These causes are bound to accept the money and then Booths can plaster its name all over events. Their name is now to be seen on the waste paper collection which supports the swimming pool. This is cheap advertising for Booths and will cause those who run these organisations to feel honour bound to shop in Booths.

I am told that many businesses in Settle are up for sale. The town will gradually fail and fade away, there will be fewer jobs and no variety in the shops which remain.

I have been told that in another two years' time Booths will be able to sell newspapers, pharmaceuticals, in house baking and open a caf. This will be the death-knell of Settle. It will become Booths town. Perhaps we should change the name of the town to "Boothston".

Settle is dying. Soon the corpse will turn into a pile of bones with not even a picking on them.

Sandra M Price

Proprietor, ArtiSan's

Station Road, Settle.

SIR - I first would like to apologise to the readers for taking up any more space in your letters page regarding the "Hearts" pyramid scheme, but I feel I must respond to Brian Williamson's letter in your November 22 edition.

I would like to say, yes, I do have names of the "victims" who have lost their money on this upside down pyramid scheme, "women taking advantage of women".

I would also like to say that they too thought they knew how it worked until it was time for money to change hands and the women who gained it could not be seen for dust and are now sporting new hairdos, new suits and, guess what, new expensive cars.

What a price to pay for a bit of friendship and a natter with the lasses, and yes Brian, men can be just as gullible. So you keep protecting your "first hand" investment and I hope you don't succeed because some other bodies will suffer.

Mr Jack Knoll,

Overdale Park, Skipton.

SIR - If regional devolution goes ahead, West Craven and Bowland may well see their ties with Yorkshire dead and buried, as they will be excluded from the Yorkshire and Humber region.

As things are at present there is a chance of recognition of their Yorkshire status - with the co-operation of Lancashire County Council - but the extra layer of regional governments would be much harder to deal with.

What can be done about it? Well, people could write to or e-mail their MP or John Prescott, or they could display a car sticker, badge, flag, or T-shirt showing their county loyalty. Or they could carry a Yorkshire passport with personal certificate.

All these things, and more, can now be bought at Budgetique in Barnoldswick Town Square. The protest group, Unite Craven, had such emblems for sale on August 1, Yorkshire Day, and is glad that its supporters can now get them, including white roses in fabric, all through the year.

The Unite Craven campaign depends on widespread evidence of support as suggested above.

Geoff Hoyle,

Chairman, Unite Craven,

Burnside Crescent, Skipton.

SIR - After my letter was published in the Craven Herald, regarding Langstrothdale, I have had a phone call from a gentleman who told me that he knew the "pack man" I referred to.

His name was Greenwood and had a draper's shop in Station Road, here in Cross Hills where I now live. So, after all these years, I have found out who he was. It's a small world isn't it?

R Lapworth,

Airedale View, Cross Hills.

SIR - Re "Snapshot of Craven from bygone years" featured in the November 29 edition showing the Christ Church production.

It was by chance that I saw the photo on a short visit to Skipton this week and was quite amazed to see my name.

I remember the photo, though no longer have a copy and I was indeed the fairy in the middle. Although the faces are familiar, the only one I can name is my sister, Margaret. She is also in the middle row, second from the right wearing a crown.

I think the photo was taken after the war, probably 1947/8 and I feel it was a pantomime. The children in the front were pixies or elves and there was a principal boy/girl, I think.

My sister and I were in the local dancing school, so there could be a link there. I cannot remember the name of the dancing school, but several shows were put on.

Seeing the photo and my curly hair brought back memories of the painful method of curling straight hair. Each night, strips of cotton were wrapped around the locks of hair, to be taken out next morning. It was almost impossible to sleep on the knots of cotton, but curly hair was essential for girls at that time.

I left Yorkshire in 1967, but my roots go deep. Sadly, my sister died in 1966 - she was married to Brian Dunne, a Skipton solicitor.

Roberta Smith (nee Wrathall)

Garden Leys,

Wingrave, Aylesbury.

SIR - Your Craven through the years in last week's Herald referred to 10 years ago when the market traders were critical of Craven District Council and proposals for regulations on time to load and unload.

Is this why, 10 years on, they seem to take all day setting up and clearing away? It would not be quite so bad if they followed the regulation to pitch their stalls four feet from the tarmac thus allowing their delivery vehicle to cause less obstruction.

As for parking at 90 degrees across the road, taking half of the carriageway and parking there for hours, that really is taking things too far.

For the record there is not one but three market officers employed to keep them in check.

No further comment is needed.

Bob Wright,

Raikes Road,

Skipton.

SIR - in the Craven Herald of December 6 you carried the order for the 30mph speed limit in Coniston Cold. Some readers may be confused as to why this order has been published. The reason for this is due to a complete lack of co-ordination on the part of the Highways Agency and North Yorkshire Police.

It is over three years since the 30mph speed limit signs were put up in Coniston Cold. The order to make this a legal speed limit was never published or put through. As the old 40mph speed limit signs were taken down at that time, for over three years there has been no speed limit through the village. It has not been common knowledge, but vehicles could legally travel at 60mph through Coniston Cold.

Now the order is going through - end of free reign for motorists you may think - not so. North Yorkshire Police have now told me in writing that even when the 30mph speed limit is law and properly ratified, the police are unwilling to enforce the speed limit with radar guns as it is too dangerous for their officers in bright yellow coats to stop vehicles. A speed camera is out of the question as in North Yorkshire as a whole there is not one working speed camera (as confirmed by the police).

So when the 30mph speed limit becomes legal, the 80 per cent of HGVs who already disregard every speed limit in the book can rest easy that Coniston Cold is still clear to go through as quickly as possible without fear of prosecution.

Jonathan Strange,

Katy's Well,

Coniston Cold.

SIR - As reported in your paper last week, I have recently been on trial before a jury in York Crown Court.

Mrs Boyes and myself did not deny the charges, indeed we took statements with us explaining our intentions and exactly why we intended to try to "render Fylingdales inoperable".

Our defence was "lawful excuse" because of imminent danger. The judge translated this as "duress of circumstance."

Experiencing the British legal system at first hand left me wondering about justice and fair trials. Of the many disadvantages to us, the defendants, a major problem was the appalling acoustics. Even before the jury was sworn in, there was much legal discussion between the judge, the prosecutor and my advocate which should have included Mrs Boyes, as she represented herself. But from where we were positioned, we could hardly hear what was being said between them, and the public gallery could not hear at all.

It was, after all, supposed to be a public hearing.

In fact, out of the five days the trial took to complete, the jury was only present for about three days. Much discussion around points of law and what was admissible as evidence took place without its or our involvement.

Mrs Boyes and myself were also concerned about the composition of the jury. In such a politically sensitive trial, certain employment or connections with the military could perhaps prejudice their judgement, but they were only asked to report if they, or any member of their family, had connections with Fylingdales or Trident.

On the fourth day of the trial one of the jurors approached the chief police witness outside the court house. Little or nothing was made of this, but I felt we needed to know in what capacity the juror thought he knew the sergeant and what did he want to discuss? I could not reach or attract my advocate's attention (throughout the trial) because he was too far in front with his back towards me.

The prosecutor seemed to have all the power. She objected to and was successful in not allowing our two expert witnesses, Professor Paul Rogers from the Bradford School of Peace Studies, and Dr David Webb a nuclear physicist and chair of Yorkshire CND.

Obviously these two highly qualified men with outstanding reputations would have given credibility to the testimonies of us two ordinary women, a former teacher and a former nurse.

They would have confirmed the danger that Fylingdales represents - a link in the chain to fire nuclear weapons from the Trident submarines. Even more importantly they would have confirmed what havoc and devastation to mankind and the planet would ensue whether it be a first strike firing or retaliation in response to a perceived missile attack.

Without our qualified witnesses it was easy for the prosecutor and judge to cast us as well meaning but "hare-brained" women and any success we might have had as being of only "nuisance value".

I do not regard breaking a link in the chain of command to fire nuclear weapons as merely "nuisance value".

The prosecutor also objected to pieces of documentary evidence, in particular the "Tridenting It" handbook (produced by Trident Ploughshares of which we are both members), on the grounds that it contained a chapter on international law and the many conventions and treaties that Britain is signatory to, which of course it ignores by possessing and threatening to use nuclear weapons.

This relies on the ignorance of the jury around legal matters and to deny them that knowledge. And yet in both Mrs Boyes' cross examination and mine, the prosecutor was allowed to read passages from the "Tridenting It" book and question us from the very passages she had objected to the jury reading for themselves.

What were they afraid of? Our truth seems to be the answer to that question.

In his summing up, the judge damned us with faint praise - about five hours of it. The jury was bored, uncomfortable, restless and ready for refreshment. It underwent a process of alienation from us, and would have agreed to anything just to get off those awful pews.

At the beginning of the trial I affirmed that I would tell the whole Truth. Sadly there is still much truth left to tell.

Olivia Agate,

Hallams Yard,

Skipton.

SIR - May I thank my family and friends and everyone who has supported me in raising £1,700 for the Sarah McKie Fund (cancer care) at Airedale Hospital, with a special thank you to Mary Atkinson.

Mrs Deanna Craven,

Mill Close,

Settle.