Sir, - As members of the Friends of Addingham Primary School we have put in a great deal of time and effort for several years, even before moving to the new premises, to raise money to help the school provide the extras which the Education Authority doesn't feel are necessary.

One such project has been improving the playground facilities for the key stage one children, four to six-year-olds.

The friends of Addingham Primary School bought benches and tables with games printed on to go around the edge of the new Tarmac area, making it a lovely, safe place for the youngest members of the school to play. Imagine then our dismay at the needless vandalism that is now going on less than one year after these new facilities have been installed.

Youths, many of whom have attended the school in the past are using the playground as a skateboard and roller blade area. This we can understand, as they say they have nowhere else, but why do they have to wreck the new benches and tables?

Presumably they use them to jump up on with their boards or skates, causing small pieces of the bench to be shaved off, making making them to become dangerous to small children.

The signs put on the benches asking them nicely not to harm them have been ripped off and ignored. It really is annoying, and has reached the stage where the head teacher has had to send letters home threatening prosecution to anyone caught vandalising the benches and tables.

If only they didn't have to wreck the equipment we could all enjoy the area,

ELEANOR ELLIS

Chairman,

Friends of Addingham

Primary School.

Beware tourists

SIR, - I note the subject of tourism was referred to in various articles and reports in last week's Ilkley Gazette.

There appears to be great store taken by some people on the numbers of anticipated visitors to be attracted into Ilkley in future. I must comment that volume is not necessarily desirable to the town or the residents.

It appears to me to be more essential to cater for the high spending section of visitors.

I should remind the Tourism Group that its original remit was to look into the management of tourists and residents co-existing side by side. It is for this reason that a town strategy has been produced.

This strategy emphasises the need for investment into the infrastructure in order that high quality services are available for high-spending visitors. It would be of no benefit to Ilkley, nor indeed its residents, to be attracting coachloads of visitors without a will to spend and contribute to the town's economy.

White Wells has been neglected for years. The Cow and Calf needs constructive management changes. Improvements cannot be brought about by knee-jerk reactions.

Both these sites, which are of heritage value, need preserving and protecting from undue erosion of excessive footfall and abuse. I expect positive moves foward to achieve these goals in the coming year.

Coun ANNE HAWKESWORTH

Manley Road,

Ben Rhydding.

True figures

SIR, - Further to your letters columns regarding the Ilkley Parish Council precept, and as your previous correspondents seem to have neither the time nor the inclination to inform us of the true number of electors, here for the record are the figures from the January, 2002, Electoral Register:

West Ward: 3,421, plus 11 other electors.

South Ward: 2,148, plus two others.

North Ward: 2,024, plus nine others.

Ben Rhydding Ward: 3,545.

Burley Ward: 2,643, plus one other.

Holme Ward: 3,345, plus one other.

Menston Ward: 2,974, plus three others.

The 'other electors' are usually those who are no longer resident here but who still have voting rights.

Ben Rhydding, due to its size, is divided into two lists and Holme Ward into three. These are combined in this letter for simplicity.

The total electorate for the Ilkley Parish Council area is, therefore, 20,100 plus 27 other electors. The electorate of Ilkley and Ben Rhydding alone is 11,138 plus 22 other electors.

A DAVID GLOVER

79 Bolling Road,

Ilkley.

Money ill-spent

SIR, - I was interested to read Arthur Bailey's letter about the Manor Park road scheme. Obviously one has the greatest sympathy with those injured on the Manor Park bends.

Arthur is right in saying that lower speed limits will reduce the number of accidents. Speed cameras are of tremendous benefit to motorists, because no motorist wants to be killed by a reckless driver. It is always better to kill your speed rather than kill a child.

We cannot spend millions of pounds on small road improvements. We should be looking to spend more money on rail and less on roads. The Manor Park road scheme would cost £5 million. It costs £1 million to build a railway station so we could have stations at Arthington, Kirkstall, Armley, Apperley Bridge and Low Moor instead of a minor road improvement. I would rather see the money spent on a rail link to Otley.

Otley should be linked to both Harrogate and the Airedale and Wharfedale lines. This would mean the people of Otley would have a direct link with Ilkley. It also means people in Ilkley and Otley could take the train to Horsforth and Headingley.

This would be of tremendous benefit to the supporters of Yorkshire and would be particularly useful, when Headingley hosted Test Matches. It would be good for hoteliers in Otley and Ilkley, because a fast rail link would make their hotels more attractive to cricket fans. Otley and Ilkley could look forward to having visitors from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Pakistan. New railway stations reduce the need for unnecessary car use. They mean fewer children suffer from asthma and fewer people die of cancer and heart problems. They would lead to fewer deaths in accidents, because rail is six times safer than other forms of transport.

They would lead to substantial savings for the health service. They would mean emergency vehicles were less likely to be delayed by traffic. They would make streets safer for pedestrians.

New stations reduce congestion and help ease gridlock. Global warming is causing flooding, rising sea levels and coastal erosion. There is a need to reverse this trend and stop building new roads and spend much more on public transport.

The Government must recognise a child's right to breathe and clearly new railway stations lead to improved air quality.

Mick Beaty

Friends of the Earth,

74 Kirkgate,

Leeds.

Chemist lament

SIR, - I am sure that I will not be alone in deploring the fact that two large retail groups, Tesco and Boots, have been able to overturn a decision to let a local pharmacist operate at the new health centre.

I understand that when the plans for the new centre were made it was envisaged that a pharmacy would be included to offer a 'one stop shop' service to those requiring medication. With this recent decision, elderly and infirm people will have to continue to cross a busy and increasingly dangerous road to reach the chemist. This seems entirely wrong.

I also understand that both Boots and Tesco were offered the opportunity to operate the health centre facility but both declined. In these circumstances it seems outrageous that they should have been allowed to stifle potential local competition and stop a service that they increasing population of Ilkley deserves.

Ilkley and Ben Rhydding used to support several pharmacies, but the 'big boys' have already bought up or stifled them to carve up the market between them - forcing those who would rather not give them their business to travel out of town for their prescriptions. Perhaps the only way we could fight back is by boycotting the Boots and Tesco pharmacies. Is Ilkley ready for direct action??

Geoffrey Lampert

6 Crossbeck Road,

Ilkley.

Better off today

SIR, - It's almost five years to the day since the Labour Government came to power after 18 years of Conservative rule. For Ilkley, the obvious effect has been a building boom driven by both a vibrant economy that has shrugged off the effects of two economic declines in the rest of the world, and increased investment in our schools, health care and public transport.

Neither the 1998 nor the 2001 world crises has caused a UK downturn - as had been the pattern of the last hundred years - and our national and local growth in wealth currently outpaces that of the US, Japan, Germany, France and many other countries.

Our tax money goes further these days because Government spending on servicing the National Debt has fallen from 5.6 per cent of our national income in 1996-97, to just two per cent nowadays. Coupled with the massive savings accruing from sustained high employment, those big savings have been used to fund urgent repairs to the dilapidated Health Service, schools and railways.

In Ilkley that means a new Health Centre, new buildings for four schools (and in Burley and Addingham, too) that followed a successful reorganisation that was vigorously opposed by local Conservatives.

There is a new hospital under way in Otley, new trains and buses, and thousands of extra doctors, nurses and teachers in training. Ilkley schools have the biggest real term's increases in their budgets, and their results have improved with more to come.

More new cars have been bought by Ilkley families than ever before, and local store traffic has reached new heights. Shops and other businesses have the confidence to invest to meet their sustained increases in custom.

None of this boom is an accident. Ilkley's booming prosperity has relied upon the careful financial management over the five years of the New Labour Government. Those with any doubts should look up their overall net of tax pay and mortgage interest for 1996-97 and compare those with today. Better? I'd say so!

Andrew Dundas

2 Pines Cottages,

Parish Ghyll Drive,

Ilkley.

Fill-in folly

SIR, - An increasingly common Ilkley occurrence: A quiet cul-de-sac. Three neighbouring substantial properties being sold to a property developer for demolition and replacement by TWENTY-FOUR dwellings.

To one side of the Close, eight modest homes face loss of privacy, light and their wonderful moor views because of the proposed erection of three-storey terraces.

Additionally, it is possible that the mature hawthorn hedge and several trees bordering the properties will disappear. This area is presently a wildlife haven, the aspen trees being hosts to a wonderful variety of birds. There is butterfly presence and badgers are known to visit.

Of further concern is the proposed access to this new development. Access is to be at the entry to the cul-de-sac where a possible further 40-plus cars will be a constant increase in traffic. Currently parking occurs in this specific area. There is every chance that it will move back into the Close.

This practice of mature, attractive buildings being sacrificed to profit must stop. Gradually the character of Ilkley is being altered as high density infill is allowed to bury its history.

Margaret Welsh

14 Grange Close,

Ben Rhydding.