Parish council played a part in future of land

After the various stages of deposit of the last Unitary Development Plan, submissions for Policy K/H2.76 - the whole of the Grove Hospital site - were scheduled for December 14, 1995.

The parish council made a strong submission and were pleased to support Bradford's commitment to maintaining the land at the northern end as Major Urban Greenspace.

There had not been any (public) objection to that category up to that point when, at incredibly short notice, Airedale Health Trust was given the right to a separate inquiry after Bradford conceded under legal pressure that a letter of December 7, 1993 could be construed as an objection.

For technical (Objection to Objection) reasons, Ilkley Parish Council could not speak, but an amendment was negotiated that it could submit a written objection which, in the middle of December, 1995, they did.

My single worst moment of more than 20 years in public life was when the developers told the Inspector that a group of hitherto responsible Olicanians had told them that they had no objection to the scheme, which was a plan for shops with 12 flats over and 18 further flats where the bandstand is today and on the land behind, and the fear that it might influence the Inspector.

Thankfully, he supported Bradford's proposals, supported by Ilkley Parish Council that the land should remain Major Urban Greenspace. Nevertheless, a newspaper account on December 11, 1995, reported that negotiations over the site were continuing and were close to completion!

In July, 1996, Coun Collard, Labour chairman of Bradford planning sub-committee, admitted that planning permission could be given before the Inspector's inquiry decision came through.

At this stage, warning bells rang and at great personal inconvenience following a year of incessant work on the UDP inquiries, the parish council had to focus on the growing concerns of the town and a meeting was arranged.

One wonders why A Dundas seeks to praise the Gazette who 'properly recognised the threat to the Grove' if there was no threat.

The parish council certainly appreciated the Gazette's contribution to the campaign. Indeed, its issue of July 25, 1996, showed the outline of the planning application.

Mrs B J CUSSONS

Former Chairman,

Ilkley Parish Council,

4 Curly Hill,

Ilkley.

Disabled disgrace

SIR, - The first Chronically Sick and Disabled Act reached the statute book in May 1970.

Amongst other other things it placed upon local authorities a statutory obligation to provide access for the disabled in all public places. This included wheelchair ramps to pavements.

I have only recently taken up residence in Ilkley and, quite frankly, I am appalled to see that after more than 30 years these requirements are not being observed as they should be.

The work recently and currently being carried out in Cunliffe Road is a disgrace. In some instances no attempt has been made to provide a ramp, and in other instances what has been done can only be described as shoddy in the extreme.

Surely someone in the local council is responsible for specifying the work and ensuring that this is carried out correctly. Why is it then that such third-rate work is being accepted?

In my view, the ratepayers in Ilkley should be entitled to see their money used properly and for work in which they can take some pride.

FRED RENDER

17 Castle Gate,

New Brook Street,

Ilkley.

Thanks for help

SIR, - I would like to thank two ladies who came to my rescue on Saturday, August 25, when I fell in Ilkley bus station between 11.30am and 11.55am. The two ladies departed on the 11.55am bus to Keighley.

They were a good team. After helping me to the seat they were sitting on, one lade stayed with me while the other phoned for help. Both remained until help arrived.

They were so kind and I could not have managed without their help and support. I had broken my kneecap (patella) and I remained in hospital until September 14.

My heartfelt thanks go to both of them.

Mrs MURIEL PAGET

21 Moor Lane,

Addingham.

End pheasant shoots

SIR, - As the pheasant shooting season proceeds, the public image the industry will seek to evoke is one of gentlemanly conduct, self-discipline and respect for its 'quarry'.

But the recent articles in the industry's own publications reveal an altogether different picture. Pheasant rearing and shooting is now a massive agribusiness built on greed and excess, where the shed-reared birds are regarded as nothing more than feathered targets in a fairground style shooting gallery. Few shooters wish to have any physical contact with the creatures they have just blasted out of the sky, let alone eat them.

In spite of industry lobbyists admitting that millions more birds are shot than eaten, they continue to be mass produced to satisfy the base instincts of vain and boastful gunmen who associate manliness with the number of semi-domesticated birds they blast out of the sky.

The environmental dislocation does not end with the sudden annual release of millions of pheasants. These so-called 'guardians of the countryside' annually trap, shoot and poison nearly five million wild mammals and birds who are attracted to the unnaturally high pheasant numbers.

Then there is the acknowledged crop damage, soil erosion around release pens and greatly increased risk of disease being carried from the enfeebled factory-reared creatures to the wild animal populations.

Animal Aid is at the forefront of alerting the public about the reality of this squalid and cowardly bloodsport. For more details, visit our website (www.animalaid.org.uk/pheasants) or call 01732 364546.

YVONNE TAYLOR

Campaigns Co-ordinator,

Animal Aid,

The Old Chapel,

Bradford Street,

Tonbridge,

Kent TN9 1AW.

Centre seeks help

SIR, - The Clarke Foley Centre in Ilkley is, as you may know, the centre for the elderly in Ilkley and district. As a registered charity we provide hot lunches twice a week, collecting, as required, people from their homes, some of whom alas are rarely able to get out.

We also provide a friendly venue for numerous groups including the partially sighted, people who have had strokes, those suffering from arthritis, and other agencies and bodies, both government and charities, to bring services for the care and welfare of the elderly in our district.

We have to raise funds to provide these services, also for the upkeep of the centre. As part of this work we are having a charity raffle on Saturday, December 22, and would be most grateful to anyone who would consider the donation of a gift/prize or service.

All of us have, had or will have friends and relations who can benefit from organisations such as the Clarke Foley Centre.

Please help us to provide this service.

PAULINE BARSTOW

Centre Manager,

Clarke Foley Centre,

Cunliffe Road,

Ilkley LS29 9DZ.

Appeal to cat owners

SIR, - On September 23, I spent the last part of the day creating a new flower bed in my garden. Today I came home to find that a cat had used it as a toilet, spreading soil everywhere.

I didn't consider this funny and am heartily sick of their antics in my neighbourhood.

Poor dog owners in this areas seem to take a lot of flak, so may I, through your newspaper, complain about cat owners, who allow their pets to behave in this way?

No dog owner allows their animal to defecate on a private garden and expects to get away with it.

Can I appeal to cat owners in the vicinity of Beckside Close, Addingham, to control their felines and act in a more socially responsible manner.

P.S. I own neither a cat or a dog.

M D Brear

10 Beckside Close,

Addingham.

End animal hunting

SIR, - Now that the Scottish Parliament has voted to ban hunting with dogs, surely it is time for the UK Government to act on the issue.

In the past 25 years, the rural population has increased by 24 per cent, but hunting plays a minimal part in the rural economy with just 1,000 hunt-related jobs at stake, compared with the 5,000-7,000 redundancies declared recently by British Airways.

Under seven per cent of the nation's horses are used for hunting, with only a few exceptionally wealthy mounted hunt members able to hunt three days a week or pay the maintenance costs of horses used only occasionally (an increasing number of riders use hiring facilities and riding schools).

The association of horseback riding with blood sports definitely discourages rural equine activity, and the disgraceful practices of providing artificial earths 'for breeding purposes' and cub hunting to train hounds to kill four to five-month-old cubs 'to provide fun later on' cannot encourage sympathy for what most rural residents consider an objectionable and barbaric tradition that should be banned.

The discovery in June, 1998, of two fox cubs caged up in one end of an artificial earth maintained by the Sinnington Hunt is only typical of the lengths to which foxhunters will go to provide 'sport'.

Other instances of cubs shut in artificial earths to be released on a hunting day have been recorded, and livestock remains have been illegally deposited near such structures, such as a pile of chickens near an artificial earth in the Thurlow country in January, 1995, and a sheep carcass deposited in a wood by the Quorn Hunt three years ago to feed the foxes harboured.

Cubs born in such earths are bound to be found, harrassed and killed- particularly cruelly when ineffectively worried about by young, inexperienced hounds learning to 'be savage with their fox'. Many foxes managing to escape after a 'good hunt' lasting 90 minutes die later of muscle damage, fatigue, chilling and cramp.

Nobody who has seen the sickening video evidence showing savage kills with massive tearing, a clearly traumatised and dead beat fox dug out to be hunted again, another thrown alive to hounds and the terrible ordeal of 'digging out' (in one case ending with the victim hauled our with a dog's jaws gripping the fox's head) can deny that this is a 'civil liberty' unacceptable by modern standards of humane treatment of animals.

From a social point of view, 'a most enjoyable run' with hounds hunting a live animal in a pack inevitably creates havoc and dangerous situations through hounds getting out of control. Foxhunting in Yorkshire has a bad record with ugly incidents in the last 15 years. These include Bramham Moor hounds running amok on a prohibited far; an accident caused by another hunt's hounds running across a road, one York and Ainsty hound killed and another injured in a collision with a train, Killington Council banning hounds after they caused havoc in the village and a pet cat savaged to death by foxhounds.

Tony Blair is making an invaluable contribution in the war against the atrocious cult of global terrorism. Surely, he can see his way through to outlawing our brutalising enjoyment of deliberate cruelty and violence sanitised as 'traditional country sport'.

Miss Katherine Watson

60 Rushton Drive,

Bramhall,

Stockport,

Cheshire SKY7 3LA.