More speeding problems in Ilkley

As on Bolling Road, the traffic up and down this road, from its junction with Valley Drive to its meeting with the main Leeds Road, also goes far too fast. An even worse problem though, is the amount of traffic trying to turn on to Leeds Road and the difficulty it meets when trying to do so.

Many accidents have happened at this spot and it is easy to see why. Even in the middle of the day when traffic is not very heavy it is difficult to get out on to the main road and, if you have a queue of impatient car drivers behind you, the temptation is to 'chance it' with the obvious consequences.

At the rush hours, especially between 7.30am and 9am, the queue of cars down this road stretches from the railway tunnel to Leeds Road.

Does anyone from the council ever come and see for themselves? It is really imperative that traffic lights, or a least a roundabout (though the latter would not help people trying to move on to Leeds Road during the rush hour) is installed at the junction of Wheatley Lane and Leeds Road.

Please, when considering spending new money to be allocated to roads in this area, can priority be given to both traffic slowing measures in Bolling Road and Wheatley Lane and traffic lights at the junction mentioned.

D J Laycock

15 Wheatley Lane,

Ben Rhydding,

Ilkley.

Slaughter claims

SIR, - Slaughter figures are almost back to normal, after a brief closure of slaughterhouses during the initial stages of the foot and mouth epidemic.

Far more animals have passed through the doors of these buildings over the past month than have met their deaths on farms and faced the 'grim pyre'. Their dying is not less horrific - animals are often inadequately stunned before being suspended upside down to have their throats cut.

They can witness - and always hear and scent - the deaths of their companions. This ritual will have been preceded by a journey in an overcrowded transporter.

Yet no mention of this killing is found in our media - can this be a conspiracy of carnivores? If the horror of what the nation kills and eats each year - 900 million animals and birds - is too great to bear, better by far to leave it behind the closed doors of the slaughterhouse.

Readers genuinely distressed by television footage of the deaths of animals deserve now to be shown the truth about the way most animals killed today in the UK will meet their deaths.

Now is the time for broadcasters to show us scenes from inside the slaughterhouses currently operating. And it is time for Government and the meat industry to acknowledge that, in order to promote public confidence in the consumption of beef, five million over 30-month cattle have been incinerated since 1996.

There is nothing new in killing to burn - but it usually, like slaughter, takes place out of public view. If the sight of suffering animals is causing you to choke on your breakfast bacon, call our Veggie Hotline on (01732) 354032 for a free recipe pack and information on the alternative to killing.

Kay Holder

Animal Aid

The Old Chapel,

Bradford Street,

Tonbridge,

Kent.

'Nothing' to do?

SIR, - Has Victor Bean nothing better to occupy him during this national crisis than log the 'movements' of a few dogs across a small piece of marginal, waterlogged land?

In a week in which almost a million farm animals have been killed and the farming and tourist industries almost bankrupted, I would have thought he could turn his energy and talents to a more practical use.

Perhaps he could even try to improve understanding between rural and urban dwellers than trying to set them at each other's throats. He should also realise that walkers, too, have 'rights' over land. At present they are disenfranchised from using thousands of acres of public urban common and council-owned woodland.

They co-operate with this draconian policy not just because of the legislation but because they see the need to combat foot and mouth disease. In this regard let us all pray that there are some sheep or cows left to enjoy 'his' pasture.

Fionna Harnett

Crossbeck Cottage,

Crossbeck Close,

Ilkley.

Alien cash quibble

SIR, - We had aliens staying with us last week. They had come among us to spread a strange currency.

However, the good shopkeepers of Ilkley were alert: "Take away those Royal Bank of Scotland notes - take away those Clydesdale Bank notes," they cried.

"But they are legal currency," the aliens replied. "Take them away, we will have none of them," said the good shopkeepers of Ilkley.

Beware, however, there will be repercussions, for the aliens were from St Andrews and so from this day hence, all the good shopkeepers of Ilkley could be banned from the golf courses of Fife and sold no more Scottish whisky.

Mr J Beaumont

Dean Street,

Ilkley.

Vaccination pleas

SIR, - Vaccinate - but don't then kill! This is the plea from many farmers and rescue centres throughout the UK in the face of the growing foot and mouth crisis.

Many cloven-hoofed animals are also family pets or at rescue centres, recovering from cruelty and neglect. They are often in secure accommodation and, even if a case of foot and mouth were located in the next farm, they would pose no disease risk. Many farmers have flocks and herds similarly housed where they can.

We at Farplace Animal Rescue run a sanctuary just 14 miles from a number of confirmed cases in County Durham. All our vulnerable animals are in a secure barn, receive contact only from myself after stringent disinfectant routines and a complete change of clothing beforehand.

Every barn door has plastic sheets hung over them for weeks, and I personally have not left my home for that length of time and will not do so until this dreadful situation is passed. We also run a support network for other animal sanctuaries and know many other organisations up and down the country which are showing similar precautions and are fearful for the slaughter of their healthy animals.

We say vaccinate, but do not then kill vaccinated animals before their time and show ourselves to be a caring society, not resorting to the techniques from the Dark Ages.

Compensating farmers for lost exports must be many times cheaper than the loss to our tourist and other industries, the animal welfare argument aside.

MAFF and the Minister ignore the animal welfare argument totally and do not respond to animal sanctuaries' pleas. We call on the Minister and Tony Blair to listen for a change and to first vaccinate without a following cull; to invest in technology that will help us distinguish between vaccinated and diseased animals and, regardless of these decisions, to make veterinary exceptions to the blanket slaughter of healthy creatures where rigid precautions have been taken and animals securely housed.

I urge your readers to write and make the same points to their MP and to Tony Blair and Nick Brown directly.

JAN EDWARDS

Farplace Animal Rescue,

Sidehead,

Westgate,

Co Durham.

Invalid care check

SIR, - The Social Security (Invalid Care Allowance) Amendment Regulations 2001 introduce changes to the rules governing what counts as 'gainful employment' for Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) purposes.

Currently, the regulations effectively exclude a carer from entitlement to ICA if they are in employment and earning in excess of £50 a week. However, from April 6, the new regulations replace the £50 figure with reference instead to the lower earnings limit.

From the same date, the lower earnings limit will be £72 per week. This change may mean that people previously refused ICA may now be entitled to the allowance.

The Disability Advice and Information Service (DAIS) can tell you if you could be entitled to ICA. DAIS is an independent advice service and our advisers have a 20-year track record if helping people claim benefits such as ICA.

To check if you could be entitled, ring DAIS on (01257) 424000, or write to them at the address below.

PAUL BRENNAN

Director,

DAIS,

81a High Street,

Wigan,

WN6 0HD.

Sad closure

SIR,- What sad news your paper imparted last week - the closure of that Guiseley institution 'Porky Brown's', as I have known it since a boy.

My aunts lived only a few streets away and in later years I went to school just down the road and would pass regularly. That lovely smell, those succulent pies, oh so tasty, too good to mask with mushy peas (but we did, of course, in winter after a trip to Guiseley's shops).

In those days I lived near White Cross so Porky's was on the doorstep so to speak, but in later years when I moved nearer Leeds, excursions to Porky's were not too uncommon.

Carried carefully home, supported in plastic boxes as they were just made and not yet fully set, the thought brings back happy memories. Pork pies from other sources just aren't the same. Perhaps they should auction the recipe to some discerning entrepreneur. Thing's ain't what they used to be, as that song goes.

I agree about the comment about modern folks - they don't know good food, just mass produced flavoured cotton wool and cardboard in many cases. Best wishes go to those at Porky Brown's who have served us well for so long. It's sad, but that's modern times for you.

P A Watson

8 Lickless Terrace,

Horsforth