Toy museum a superb attraction

A visit can be enhanced with grandchildren but is equally interesting to 'children of all ages' and this wonderful collection of toys across the centuries creates a bridge between generations and is quite simply, a happy place to visit.

Encourage young guests to do the quiz, buy a token for the fascinating fairground and you will come away an hour or two later relaxed and refreshed.

However, do check opening hours at the Tourist Office as these vary slightly between winter and summer.

Barbara Cussons

4 Curly Hill,

Ilkley.

Arafat is real

SIR, - If what we are told about him is true, Arafat is a liar, a thief and a terrorist. Of course, this is what his enemies want us to believe.

With very little thought, we can see that, in fact, he is a top grade hero. For close on 50 years, he has fought against one of the most deadly enemies on this earth. It is no wonder that he is now showing signs of this ordeal.

In comparison with Moses, Arafat was not helped by divine assistance and his enemy has modern weapons. Arafat is real, but Moses is just a fairy story.

It is a fairly well known technique to blacken your victim's character before you kill him, so an assassination is to be expected.

William Boocock

17 Wheatley Lane,

Ben Rhydding.

Meningitis fear

SIR, - Meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia are devastating diseases that can kill children and young adults within hours.

Today there is still no effective vaccine available for the prevention of meningoccal group B meningitis which accounts for most cases of bacterial meningitis. Nevertheless, many lives can be saved if the disease is identified early.

It is a known fact that the sooner the disease is treated the better chance of a successful outcome. Due to increased awareness about the disease, the mortality rate is now lower than ever before.

Tragically, it is still a sad fact that despite the availability of a wide range of information for health professionals and the general public; children, teenagers and adults are still being lost needlessly.

The Spencer Dayman Meningitis Laboratories charity is supported by many friends who have lost loved ones because somewhere in the Health Care Delivery System, health professionals have not recognised the seriousness of the patient's condition.

Just because the patient does not have a stiff neck or sensitivity to bright light, does not mean that they are not suffering from meningoccal infection. Due to this misconception, often vital hours are lost and devastated families are left contemplating if they were somehow to blame.

We know there is no set pattern for the disease to present itself initially. Someone suffering from meningoccocal septicaemia may not necessarily develop meningitis.

Therefore, to reduce the mortality rate even further, it is of the utmost importance for everyone concerned to know the common symptoms of meningitis and those that may exist with meningococcal septicaemia. For more information about the disease or the charity's work, contact me at the address below.

Steve Dayman

Operations officer (fundraising),

Spencer Dayman Meningitis

Laboratories,

25 Cleevewood Road,

Downend, Bristol.

UNICEF appeal

SIR, - Your readers will have heard that on the morning of January 17, the volcano Nyiragongo, situated 25 kilometres north of Goma, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, entered into a massive eruption.

UNICEF ws quick to respond, with the first 28 tonnes of emergency supplies, dispatched from the UNICEF warehouse in Kinshasha arriving in Kigali on Saturday..

UNICEF is rushing an additional 60 tonnes of emergency supplies to Rwanda and to the Democratic Republic of Congo in an urgent effort to reach the hundreds of thousands aof people displaced by the violent volcanic eruption and lava flow near the town of Goma.

"We will airlift the relief supplies into the Rwandan capital of Kigali and truck them to wherever they are needed in in the region," said David Bull, executive director of UNICEF UK. "The risk of further volcanic activity has not yet been established."

Monday's relief flight, loaded with 60 tonnes of survival items, was arriving in Kigali on Monday evening. The flight, sent from the UNICEF supply warehouse in Copenhagen, was carrying water purification tablets and powder, oral rehydration salts to stave off deadly diarrhoealdehydration. tents and tarpaulins for shelter and blankets for young infants and children.

Of the approximately 350,000 people affected by the volcano, 200,000 are children under the age of 15. Of those, some 100,000 are under the age of five.

Your readers have been generous in the past in responding to UNICEF emergency appeals. If they would like to make a donation to the DRC/Rwanda emergency, cheques/postal orders, made payable to UNICEF will be gratefully received a: UNICEF, DRC/Rwanda Emergency, PO Box 1800, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S6 4UG.

Please remember to include your address so that we may send you a Gift Aid form to increase the value of your donation.

l £75 is enough to buy water purification tablets to give 800 children a litre of clean, safe water to drink.

l £46 covers the basic health needs for 200 people over three months through Emergency Health Kit supplies.

l £25 will buy enough blankets to keep 36 children warm at night.

l £7 will buy plastic sheeting which will protect an entire family against the elements.

LOUIS COLES

Regional Fundraising Manager,

(North-East),

UNICEF.

Autism plea

SIR, - I am a student at Heriot Watt University in my honours year of BSc Computing for Industry. For my dissertation I am trying to create software to help predict and diagnose autism and related disorders in children.

To do this I need information from the families of sufferers from this condition. I would be grateful if any one who has a child with this condition or any of the similar disorders (eg Asperger's, Tourettes etc) would go to my web site at http://sequinn.topcities.com and fill in the online questionnaire there, or download it and either e-mail it to me at nazreel@hotmail.com or by post to the address below.

Susan Quinn

c/o Mrs Christine Taylor,

Heriot Watt University,

Scottish Borders Campus,

Netherdale,

Galashiels.

Play it again

SIR, - What a shame another relatively 'new' building, the Wharfedale Gate, along with the International Wool Secretariat, has to go to make way for yet more houses. It's another area for allegedly affordable homes to be built with the £400,000 'donated' by the Ilkley College development builders.

Strange, isn't it, that they saw it worth nearly the cost of one of their affordable 'nightmare dream homes' (Ilkley Gazette, January 17) to keep them away. So it's OK to build them down Leeds Road!

Awfully sorry to be a NIMBY, but councillor Anne Hawkesworth can keep them. Besides, where are the people who would occupy these 'affordable' homes work?

Two potential employment areas (three, if you count the college) have been pulled down to accommodate them.

All this town gets with any development is yet more commuters.

M RAYNER

Four Firs,

267 Leeds Road,

Ilkley.

Few passengers

SIR, - At the rate things are going there soon won't be any passengers to pay the salaries of train drivers and conductors.

Maybe I'm wrong, but recently I have got the impression that there are fewer and fewer people travelling from Ilkley by train on a regular basis. If I'm right, then might I venture the reason that commuters have had enough of cancellations, non-arrivals, lateness and unreliability and voted with their feet.

This week, a friend of mine caught the 6.12pm train from Ilkley to Leeds. He was one of only two passengers on this particular train.

By the time it got to Menston, he and the conductor, who went and sat down beside him, were the only two people on the four-coach service, apart from the driver.

At this time of day, one would have expected more travellers than that. If this trend continues, Arriva won't need to look for more drivers - they'll be queueing up at the jobcentres.

If there is a slump in passengers, then Arriva has only itself to blame. Fares are not cheap and the service has been shoddy, to say the least.

The Wharfedale line should be offering a quick, reliable service into Leeds and Bradford, giving passengers a comfortable and relaxing journey. It should be an attractive alternative to taking the car and having to worry about traffic on congested roads and parking when they eventually get into the cities.

Arriva had better get its act together quickly. It needs to concern itself with standards of service rather than profits.

Inadequate services plus commuter disenchantment add up to no passengers. And that could spell the end of the line for train services into Ilkley.

LOUISE CARTNER

Somerset Avenue,

Baildon.

Band's thanks

SIR, - On behalf of Otley Brass Band, I would like to thank the people of Ilkley for their generosity and warm wishes to us over the Christmas period.

We played at Booths supermarket and in the new bandstand in The Grove and received many compliments, together with donations in order to help us improve the band facilities.

Christmas is a vital time of the year for local groups and funds raised through the support of the local community are very much appreciated. We look forward to entertaining you in the bandstand again.

RACHEL NELSON

Secretary,

Otley Brass Band,

1 Rose Bank,

Station Road,

Otley.