Letters To The Editor

SIR, - Family Misery Day was organised again this year at the Midland Hotel on Bank Holiday Sunday, so readers should remember to put it in their diaries for 2003 and arrange to leave town if at all possible.

It is billed as a Fun Day, but it is misery for anyone living up to a quarter of a mile, or more, from the pub. I have no problem with volleyball, or with the excellent charity which is to benefit, but why oh why does it have to be so loud?

I am a little hard of hearing but I could at times hear every word of the commentary, booming across the rooftops, in my garden at the top of Wells Walk. It must be pure hell for people living close to the Midland.

I don't ask for the Fun Day to be banned; only that they turn down the volume so that people taking part can hear it, but not the rest of the town who want to enjoy their Sunday without this barbaric racket.

Surely, it is not too much to ask. We have suffered this for three years now; enough is enough.

I will be happy to add £50 to the kitty for the Marie Curie collection, if they will do as I ask, and I'll double that if they can do without the amplifier altogether.

I can't say fairer than that, and Mrs Hems did say that this charity was close to her heart.

JOHN CUNLIFFE

Wells Walk,

Ilkley.

Cats are killers

SIR, - Regarding the letter about sterilising feral cats and replacing them where they were found, I was stunned by the ignorance of this action.

We are not talking about returning to the wild an indigenous species such as a hedgehog. It has been shown in the outback of Australia, feral cats are responsible for the extinction of small indigenous mammals as they are very efficient killing machines.

It would seem more sensible to humanely euthanise these animals and stop being sentimental as to imagine these animals as fluffy little pussy cats chasing a string.

Also, put a bell around the necks of domestic cats to give the birds a sporting chance. Spare a sentimental thought for the torture of these innocent creatures.

SUE MAYBURY

The Mistal,

Eastfield Lane,

Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Parking protest

SIR, - Over the past several weeks, building works have been going on at a property in Skipton Road, Ilkley, which was a private hotel.

More and more contractors seem to have become involved and all park along the verges. They are spreading further and further and have ruined the verges upon which they park.

This is bad enough, but they also present a road safety hazard in that, from where I live, my view of the road to the east, when trying to emerge from my drive, is restricted by some two hundred yards. If they parked on the actual carriageway it would be more.

Surely this is obstruction in any shape or form and should be being dealt with by the police. A challenge to our new hands on all singing and dancing police presence!.

I note that this Bank Holiday weekend that some of our neighbours, taking advantage of the absence of most of these vehicles, have placed large stones upon the verges outside their homes, I must assume that, the strong young workmen who care not to walk a few hundred yards, will park on our verges next.

I have made contact with the person who I presumed to be the main contractor in view of the fact that his name is prominently displayed at the property, in an attempt to arrange an amicable solution to this problem. I was fobbed off.

If our elected representatives are blind to these abuses and the legal authorities will not enforce the law, what are we to do? We are all well aware that the innocent citizen protecting his rights suddenly becomes the villain.

Ponder well upon this all you who disdain the words of V M Bean and Frazer Irwin. We are not complete idiots; we put into print much that many of you think but dare not , or feel unable to express for various reasons.

Others are disdainful, I suggest, out of the guilt that comes from unearned privilege.

Victor M Bean

Skipton Road,

Ilkley.

Keeping it green

SIR, - Last week's letter from A Dundas was long on rhetoric and irrelevancies but short on commonsense.

His criticism of the planning system, which strives to keep some 'green and pleasant land', is unjustified and few residents want to see every inch of space turned into housing.

Not only residential but employment land is being developed at an alarming rate. We have already lost most of our garages; small trades have fewer and fewer opportunities to have a 'yard' and the brewing industry is forcing managers and tenants out of business so it can turn public houses (community centres) into yet more housing.

Yes, Ilkley, Harrogate and North Leeds are popular places to live and yet, the efforts of a handful of people, represented in Ilkley by councillors (parish and district), some Civic Society members, and the Ilkley Design Statement Group, could be recognised and supported by more people.

Does Mr Dundas want the 'evident demand for homes' to be fulfilled endlessly until all the accessories to living are destroyed or re-deployed to meet the intensification of development?

If other areas of the district were not being destroyed by Mr Dundas's political philosophies, coupled with the apathy of their residents who are not as well supported by their councillors as we are, there might be less pressure upon Wharfedale.

Many of us have sought ways to provide affordable housing (a much more important point that the waffle about Burley and Menston gaining or losing by being attached to Ilkley).

Unfortunately your lead article highlights the problem. The sad economic facts of life are that there is a market value on land. The current proposals which are the result of our support for low cost housing highlight that it has to be subsidised one way or another.

Hopefully, combining low cost housing with home ownership will result in higher standards for more people than the former council housing schemes.

Sadly the lack of reward for tenants who looked after their own homes meant all the housing stock was dragged down by other tenants and no administration, across the country never mind Bradford, has been able to compensate for the lack of pride that comes without home or good tenant rewarded ownership.

Does Mr Dundas think subsidised low-cost housing will create better housing stock than former public housing or doesn't he?

B Cussons

4 Curly Hill,

Ilkley.

Ragwort alarm

SIR, - I am greatly alarmed by the invasion this summer of ragwort into Ilkley gardens and on other private ground. Perhaps we do not understand that this tall, vivid yellow weed is dangerously toxic to children and animals.

Unless we get rid of ragwort now before it seeds (like dandelion its seeds are carried far and wide on the wind) we will be submerged next year by a sea of this belligerent and foul-smelling plant.

It can easily be cut down, better still, can be pulled up though householders should take care to use protective gloves when doing so because its sap can burn the skin.

David Morgan Rees

Westwood Drive,

Ilkley.

Mary's poems

SIR, - I would like to ask through your newspaper if anyone has a copy of 'Selected Poems' by Mary Booth, of Denton.

This was published in 1990 by Creaser-Clark Publications. Obviously, I would be prepared to pay for this book, which is now out of print.

Mrs M T Sykes

2 Smithy Lane,

Denton,

Ilkley.

Chapel concern

SIR, - In response to your invited comments on the High Royds issue, I suppose the lovely chapel will be to pulled down since it was for use by staff and patients primarily. It will be a pity.

What will there be to regulate the size of the new developments, eg. height of the units which should be in the footprints of demolished buildings? What will happen to the stone - will it be re-used or sold off?

Brian Jones

E-mail address supplied.