SIR,- I find it absolutely amazing that our local politicians supported, and are disappointed, that Sainsbury's have withdrawn from their proposed supermarket in Otley town centre.

They claimed it would be a benefit to Otley, by creating jobs and increasing the number of visitors to the town centre. I think they have got their facts wrong.

A few years ago the National Retail Planning Forum, financed by Sainsbury's along with a number of other well known supermarket chains, conducted research into the impact of supermarkets on communities. The embarrassing results showed that rather than creating jobs, for every supermarket built, 276 jobs were lost.

In 1998 the Government published a comprehensive assessment of the impact of superstores on market towns. It found that food shops lost between 13 and 50 per cent of their trade when a supermarket opened at the edge of a town centre, resulting in the closure of some town centre food retailers.

Do the politicians want a town centre full of charity shops and craft shops or do they want a vibrant town centre full of vitality and rich in a cross-section of shops, which make Otley a wonderful place to live.

Maybe I missed something and the action plan for Otley is not to enrich the town centre but to make it a place where the 'out of Otley' shopper can come with their air polluting cars to put a few bob into the pockets of a multi millionaire and a supporter of New Labour.

Helen Jenner

55 Boroughgate,

Otley.

Good news?

SIR, - Good news all round - £1 million each for 43 market towns, and foot and mouth under control (at least until after the election).

In Otley, new hospital building is to start 'next' year and green belt land at Rumplecroft is to remain. Steelworkers are to be paid, like the farmers, direct compensation.

Everyone's a winner. Is it Christmas? No it's the pre-election bribe bonanza. We can't wait to get to the polling booth and reinstate this munificent, philanthropic Tory Labour government.

Or can we? Forget the chaos in the health service, education, welfare, transport, farming and fishing. Forget the waste of the Millennium Dome, Wembley Stadium and Portcullis House. Forget the wars in Kosovo and Iraq and our involvement in the arms trade. Forget the spying and Star Wars at Menwith Hill.

Does anyone remember what happened after the LAST General Election? After the bribes, was the punishment.

Cuts in benefits for disabled people, interrogation squads knocking on doors, privatisation of everything in sight, patients on trolleys for hours, 75p for pensioners.

The bad news can wait until the election is over. Then, voters will have time to forget before the next election.

Don't be fooled. Blair has a hidden agenda with more 'hard choices'. These include extending means testing for the elderly and disabled and higher home care charges under what the Government calls a 'fairer charging' policy.

And petrol costs. Labour's temporary tax reductions only apply until AFTER the election. It will then be raised back to its previous level. Already the cost of petrol has risen, so expect higher prices than ever.

And there are many more similar shocks for the unwary voter, and this time, pensioners won't be spared.

We all say 'next time we won't fall for it', but we always do. As you bask in the euphoria of Tory Labour's 'good news', gird your loins for what follows after the election. You will need all the endurance you can muster.

Malcolm Naylor

21 Grange View,

Otley.

Liberal memory

SIR, - It is, I suppose, quite understandable that as a complete stranger to the area, the Liberal Parliamentary candidate feels compelled to write letters to the press in the hope someone locally will eventually have heard of him.

However his letter last week attacking Adam Pritchard, his Conservative opponent, for the Liberals support of the Unitary Development Plan which would see the loss of some 1,250 acres of green belt land in our ward, amounted to a laughable distortion of the truth.

Put very simply, the Conservatives have consistently opposed green belt development. When we recently put forward a motion in the council chamber effectively seeking to abandon the UDP in its present form. Coun Kirkland and his Labour ward colleague both spoke and voted in favour of going ahead with a plan which has to mean housing development on the green belt, the very thing the Liberals claim to be concerned about.

As to the usual stuff in his letter about the Liberals being ahead in North-West Leeds, the Liberal candidate is of course far too new to the area to remember the leaflet distributed around the constituency in the final few days of the last general Election by his Liberal Parliamentary predecessor but one or two - who can now recall just how many Liberal Parliamentary hopefuls have come and gone in the last four years? - telling everyone their polling showed Labour could not win the seat so the choice had to rest between the Conservatives and the Liberals.

We know the outcome of that . Beware of any Liberal electoral claims. They are about as reliable as all their other promises.

Coun CLIVE FOX

99 Breary Lane East,

Bramhope.

Support for cats

SIR, - Through your paper I would like to thank the people of the surrounding areas who visited Wharfe Valley Branch of Cats Protection exhibition last weekend.

The event, held at Pets at Home store in Guiseley, was intended to raise our profile and the image of responsible pet ownership. It did all of that and more besides.

Scores of tins of cat food and more than £108 were donated by shoppers. The kiddies all got balloons full of gas donated by the store and lots of useful advice and leaflets were given away, too.

More importantly, we made some new friends with the potential of new foster homes and sponsors. Well done Aireborough and beyond.

We need to expand, particularly as efforts to start a branch in Bradford have not yet been successful. In the meantime we are helping Baildon and Shipley area as much as a small bunch of volunteers can.

If you live in that part of the world or in this readership area and want to help call us on( 01943) 872823 and remember cats add life!

Graham Hoult

Media Officer,

Wharfe Valley Branch,

Cats Protection.

Farming record

SIR, - Before foot and mouth closed the countryside and demanded yet another payment of taxpayers' cash, we had swine fever and BSE, all brought to us by an industry which has polluted our water, abused its animals and engaged in the wholesale destruction of our landscape.

An industry whose practitioners expect us to pay for all this through limitless subsidy and inflated food prices and then objects to a right to roam. These are the same people who blocked petrol outlets with their banners shouting 'Keep out of the countryside, Mr Blair, we say you don't understand it'.

Now they require support again - all Land Rovers under cover, of course.

F Dickinson

Larkfield Road,

Rawdon.

School tribute

SIR, - The staff and governors of Westgate Infant School were saddened to learn of the recent death of Mrs Peggy Payne.

Mrs Payne had a long association with our school and had been a governor for more than 20 years. She was chairman of governors until three years ago and she worked tirelessly to support the school.

She was forward thinking and always up to date with new initiatives but she also valued and upheld the many traditions of our school and the community it served. She had high standards of public service but she combined this with a personal warmth and kindness which will be very sadly missed by us all.

E A Lister

Head Teacher,

Westgate Infant School,

Scarborough Road,

Otley.

Menston mystery

SIR, - I am writing to ask if any readers can help me solve a Menston mystery. Is there a Menston connection with builders of one of the Eddystone lighthouses?

In 1756 John Smeaton (from Leeds) began to build the world's most famous lighthouse, the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse. It was famous because it was the first stone lighthouse built out at sea, which many had thought to be an impossible feat.

Also the stonework was cunningly designed so that each block fitted together like a dove-tailed joint, adding strength to the building.

As he worked on the lighthouse, Mr Smeaton invented new forms of concrete which were water-resistant and developed new building methods. The revolutionary design became the model for all subsequent lighthouses.

The fourth lighthouse was dismantled and replaced in the 1880s when the rock it was built on began to collapse. Most of the tower was rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe. The new lighthouse was built by Sir James Douglass.

Menston has what seems to be one of the stones of the third lighthouse. There is a stone built in to a wall at the top of Park Road. It is granite, cut and rebated in a complicated way and inscribed 'Eddystone 1756'.

Does anyone know how it got there? and is there a connection with either Smeaton or Douglass?

John Forsyth

7 Park Field,

Menston.

Value for money

SIR, - I agree with Councillor Graham Latty that Yeadon and Guiseley Council taxpayers should see value for their money on their own doorsteps.

Sticking with the topic only, the condition of roads and pavements remains a disgrace, dangerous to motorist and pedestrians alike. Think of the potholes and botched patch-ups on the way to the Guiseley tip, typical symbols of Labour's neglect of outer Leeds during 20 years of council mismanagement.

G W M Britton

St John's Way,

Yeadon.