Letters to the Editor

I refer, of course, to the floods of contraband liquor literally flowing across the border into the Bradford Metroland. Each night, under cover of darkness, the milky-boys come riding - flitting from hedgerow to gate, down green lanes, rippling village ponds under the pale light of a smugglers' moon.

What dreadful cargo do these felons bear? None other than the dreaded and filthy green-top-milk. That disgusting and disease-ridden fluid so sensibly banned in Bradford Metroland under the smokescreen of foot and mouth.

Our good and great leaders have waited for this moment over the years - in their bitter hearts they have nursed their grudge silently, until the dawning of the day of reckoning. Meanwhile in the green acres of Craven the feckless elders will have no part in a ban, knowing nothing about farming. How unlike our own wise leaders!

And so the illicit trade in green-top-milk goes on - milkmen in North Yorkshire can hardly meet the demand; bottle-shaped parcels are passed from shadowy figure to shady dealer to peddlers and punters to be clandestinely bundled across the border to parched Bradford Metroland.

Why, only last night I myself nearly became a victim of the felonious fluid.

Accosted in a darkened Cononley street by a milky-boy and, tempted almost beyond endurance by the white moonlit bottle with its shining emerald cap, I reached towards it, yearning, yearning.

Regaining my senses in the nick of time I reached for my trusty Acme Thunderer Police Pattern Whistle and gave a shrill blast sufficient to put the miscreant to flight. A narrow escape, and one which a soul of lesser resolution might not have made.

This rot must be stopped! How can winsome and pure supermarket milk, watered to the correct fat content, filtered, pasteurised, homogenised and paralysed, how can it compete with this illegal import? Daily ever more consumers succumb to the fatal lure of live milk, relish the taste and vow to smuggle on to the end! How will we staunch the flood of this vile and filthy fluid?

Write to your Bradford Metroland Councillor now! Tell him how much you love your watered milk. Support his brave move to stop the disease-ridden tide of green-top-milk. Now! Before it's too late! Written in ironic frustration

George Speller

Hill Top Road

Hainworth Keighley

SIR - I was horrified to see pictures in your newspaper a couple of weeks ago showing the Mayor of Bradford wearing the Keighley Mayoral regalia.

In my view the only person entitled to wear these items is the Mayor of Keighley, and I know I am not alone in wishing for the return of this figure and an end to Bradford's control of Keighley affairs.

It reminded me of some lines from 'Macbeth' concerning 'a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief.' It so happens that I do not believe Bradford has made a very good job of Keighley affairs, but this is not the point.

Even if Bradford had done wonders for the town, the size and history of Keighley demands that the town should run its own affairs.

Your paper would do better to canvass this view rather than show the Mayor of a city of miles away masquerading in Keighley regalia.

It is high time Bradford removed its tanks from Keighley's lawn.

D A MOSLEY,

Aspen Close, Long Lee.

Editor's note:- The Keighley News last year carried out an in-paper ballot to discover the views of residents on the issue raised by Mr Mosley.

As a result the editor chaired a meeting which resulted in a steering group being set up to call for a Town Council for Keighley.

More than 5000 people signed petitions which are now going forward for further action with the aim of making a submission to the government this summer.

SIR - On a nostalgic trip to Haworth at Easter with my daughter and grandchildren, I was sad to discover the loss of a piece of Bront folklore.

Before 'modernisation' in the forties at The Black Bull, visitors came in droves to see what was known as 'the Brontroom' which was Branwell's local drinking parlour. Situated to the left of the back door, Branwell would hear his father's voice as he entered the front door in search of his son, thus enabling the young man to make a hurried escape via the sash window overlooking the backyard.

Dashing to the rear of the far barn he was able to squeeze up a narrow ginnel formed by the rear wall of the barn and the retaining wall of the churchyard, leap down, race between the gravestones, through the iron gate to the paved path and thus reach the safety of the Parsonage before his father's return.

My playmates and me accessed the graveyard via that ginnel many times in childhood.

I opened the little iron gate and walked down to the retaining wall to show my family the well remembered dark little ginnel. Popping my head over the wall I was shocked to see only a vast expanse of characterless concrete - yet again the planners had allowed a little piece of history to be bulldozed away.

Another example of the changing face of Haworth as it succumbs to an image of vulgar profiteering at the expense of its true character.

MRS MURIEL CROOK,

Ryecroft, Harden.

SIR - The Keighley News 20/4/01 reported in a small news item that a major plan to transform Airedale into a world-class centre for high-tech industries is being developed by Bradford Council.

I have noticed that good sound bites in the media emanate from politicians' quarters during election times. The reality is that if Bradford Council had ever wanted to rejuvenate Keighley it had the power to do so many years ago.

Instead 'High-Tech' work and for that matter low tech work in Bradford Council was encouraged and forced to migrate from the Aire-Worth region by Bradford Council into Bradford City.

For instance, Aire-Worth Region represents one quarter of Bradford, yet less than 500 are employed within this area while Bradford Council employs 23,000 people to oversee its crumbling empire.

The past has proved the fact that Bradford Council has neither the political will nor intelligence to achieve anything of substance for ratepayers. Education, housing, healthcare, tourism, race stability, real open local government, etc.

The list of failures points up that Bradford Council first needs to transform itself into a unit ratepayers have confidence in, not the distaste its policies of today generates.

DAVID SAMUELS,

Station Road, Oxenhope.

SIR - When it can obviously be seen that a person is directly responsible for an increase in crime in a particular area, it would be correct and proper to prosecute that person according to the laws (legislation) of the land.

It would not seem correct and proper to see that person rewarded for their actions by the very people who are supposed to be protecting us from the criminals.

There is not a week goes by without reading in the Keighley News that crime statistics in the Worth Valley are steadily increasing.

Yet by removing and re-assigning Community Constables from vital areas across the valley (against public opinion) Chief Superintendent Derek Bonnard has done more to assist the criminal fraternity in the local area than the Mafia did in Chicago during prohibition.

Has Chief Supt Bonnard been demoted, berated or discharged by his superiors for raising the crime rate in the district? No, far from it. He has, in fact, been promoted to the hallowed ranks of 'Her Majesty's Inspectorate', with, no doubt, a grand increase in salary to boot.

A fine reward to someone who is leaving the Worth Valley in fear of violence, burglary and unrelenting criminal damage (and worse) and the knowledge that their ex community constable is probably minding a speed camera at the other side of the valley.

Chief Supt Bonnard's superiors are currently looking for a suitable replacement. No doubt a man of similar calibre, someone with the same moral commitment and desire to serve the people in the same way that Chief Supt Bonnard has. How about Ronnie Biggs?

CLLR IAN SHACKLETON,

Haworth, Stanbury and

Cross Roads Parish Council.

Chief Supt Bonnard told us he would be responding to Cllr Shackleton privately rather than through the paper.

SIR - Chief Superintendent Derek Bonnard is to be congratulated on his promotion to Her Majesty's Police Inspector-ate.

Now that he will become one of the counters, rather than one of the counted, will his first task be to 'inspect' the bizarre decision to leave Haworth, Oxenhope and surrounding areas without a dedicated police presence?

DAVID McKAY

Mill Hey, Haworth

SIR - I wonder if you can help through your letter page, some-one who is studying her family history through the Internet.

Jean is in BC Canada and is looking for anyone who can remember the family or the story. Family of Kate Walker (Shirley Catherine) who disappeared in a flood in Keighley in about 1902.

She was in her early 20s. Her father Alfred Walker, possible born in Scotland. Kate was married to a William Wood, a railway bridge engineer.

They had three children Phoebe born 1894, Patty born in 1896 and Jack. She has not been able to find either the Walkers or the Woods in the 1881 census for England and Scotland. Does anyone out there recognise any of the children's names?

Jan Perkins,

Wheathead Lane,

Exley Head.

SIR - I am writing to the Keighley News in the hope that you can put me in contact with someone who wrote to me recently.

A woman from the Keighley area wrote to me during our Daffodil Campaign, asking if she could volunteer to help our fundraising efforts. I have lost the letter and have therefore been unable to reply to her. At a time when we need all the volunteers we can get, I am extremely embarrassed.

If the writer of this letter reads this can I first of all apologise and secondly ask her to make contact again? I remember that she worked for a national voluntary organisation in an administrative capacity.

BRIAN CURRAN,

Community Fundraising

Manager Bradford,

Calderdale and Craven.

SIR - May I thank all those people who slogged around Keighley galvanising over 5,000 ratepayers to support local democracy via a Keighley Parish Council? Katherine Roberts, George Edge, Eric Cunningham, Joyce Newton, Martin Leathley, Brian Hudson, Eddie McNulty, Tony Wright, Joyce Fothergill and many others, including all those behind the scenes who did not wish to be identified by my research.

A special word for Cllr Martin Leathley, a person who I have criticised in the past. Cllr Leathley should be publicly praised for his efforts in abandoning political rhetoric whilst pursuing the democratic ideals so many people in this area have long aspired to.

That those with a self-seeking political agenda were conspicuous by their absence proves to me that people power can overcome the foolishness which so dishonours today's political debate.

As over 95 per cent of the Keighley population demands the right to local government, I hope that Bradford Council members will not scupper this important petition in a fit of political pique.

RUTH BLACKMAN,

Prince Street, Haworth.

SIR - Haworth as a tourist attraction cannot make progress with the Bront image alone. People expect to be taken care of and afforded attention, if not VIP treatment.

This is an opportunity for young people with entrepreneurial instinct and skill to organise themselves and cash in on the potential. First of all, however, Bradford District Council must help with long overdue innovations.

Main Street should be pedestrianised and closed to commercial vehicles between say 0900 hours and 1700 hours. Anyone who doubts the feasibility of this arrangement can see the system in operation at Kirkcaldy, Fife.

Haworth also needs more parking spaces. As I see it there is much empty moorland close at hand, and if thought unsightly on the moors cars could be stabled underground.

Motorists arriving in Haworth would be directed to a particular location(s) where the aforementioned entrepreneurs in smart recognisable dress would take cars to official car parks and return them at a pre-arranged time.

The occupants of the car would then be free to enjoy the delights of Haworth, riding in jaunting cars provided for that purpose.

The powers that be at Bradford can do much for Haworth and other neglected places if only they would raise their sights above the smoke filled Council Chambers.

CHARLES MEACHER

Rosslyn Grove, Haworth