Parents make case for keeping school

No one school is 'better' than the other and we feel that to take this approach would be divisive and negative. This would be especially detrimental when after the schools are reorganised, parents and teachers will still need to work together.

However, we feel that there are a number of significant advantages of retaining the junior school site as the location for one of the reorganised schools. We strongly believe that this central site is most suitable for the development of a Church of England Primary school and best serves the needs of the whole community.

Our reasons for holding this view are as follows:

l It is an ideal site near to community facilities and municipal buildings such as the library, the civic centre, the museum, the swimming pool, churches, etc.

l It is an ideal position to maximise links with Prince Henry's Grammar School.

l It already serves children from all corners of Otley and it's central, accessible position facilitates school choice for parents from all areas of the town.

l This site is easily accessible in terms of daily walking to school, proximity to the public bus routes, accommodation of emergency vehicles and good parking facilities.

l It already has a large grass sports field and hard playgrounds.

l It is an ideal site used by many community groups as well as for public meetings, polling stations and so forth.

l It already has large spacious classrooms.

l It is a large site inherently ideal for further educational development without taking space away from play areas.

l The site is in the centre of the community of Otley and if closed or knocked down or left to go derelict, it would have a severe and immediate impact on the whole vitality and fabric of the town.

The local education authority seems intent on dividing the town into neat geographical packages so that people will use their cars less and walk their children to school. This fails to recognise a number of important factors about the way our community works. People in Otley choose schools based on a wide variety of reasons, the main factor usually being their view of what will be best for their children's education and not their own convenience in taking their child to school.

An examination of the maps showing the distribution of school children attending the junior school will reveal that children attend this school from all corners of Otley, as they do for other schools, particularly Westgate Infants School.

Parents Action Group

1 Riverdale Road,

Otley.

www.saveourschool.fsnet.co.uk

Goalposts moved

SIR - With regards to your coverage of the meeting on Yeadon Banks' removal from the green belt, held in Yeadon Town Hall in September of last year. I would like to put it, that questions raised at this meeting still remain unanswered.

1.Two hundred-plus residents turned out to this meeting. A consensus of opinion indicated that no-one was aware of the original public inquiry of June 22, 1995. I would like to know what appropriate procedures were taken by the council to inform residents of this?

Would I be correct in assuming that the statutory publicity requirements require a site notice or notification be posted to neighbours?

Also, would the council agree with the statement, that a lack of awareness of the inquiry, may be relevant to persons who would have wished to put together a case objecting to this green belt deletion?

2. Does the council's proof of evidence with regards to this site's recreation and community value, take fully into account, the recreational uses of this site put forward as representations? And, acknowledge its history as common land?

3. Finally, regarding the conclusion to modification No14/029. I would be interested to know exactly what issues relating to a protected area of search allocation objection would have been valid.

It would seem that objectors have been poorly advised in preventing Banksfield becoming PAS, their objections dismissed. How can the inspectors arguments for a green belt deletion, based on issues such as locality of a site be valid, when objectors comments on (the same) locality issues (for example) are pushed aside - a PAS allocation pushed in, and our objections shelved and re-defined as relevant for consideration at a possible future development date?

Could someone explain this goalpost moving rationale to me? I would be grateful if the council would care to reply to these points in the detail that has yet to be afforded - perhaps, in this paper?

Graham Chaffer

Haw Lane,

Yeadon.

Move the sheep

SIR, - In reply to D Kerr's letter regarding defence of the car boot sale in Otley: As a veterinary surgeon, I am well aware of the high risk that I represent on entering farms when required to undertake the treatment of sick animals.

To this end I employ high levels of biosecurity prior to entering farm premises. All our vehicles carry spray guns used to disinfect the tyres, wheel arches and the undersides of the vehicles; waterproof clothing is worn that is disinfected prior to entry on to farms and cleaned regularly; contact with livestock is kept to a minimum and all biosecurity measures that farmers employ are adhered to.

All entrances to the surgery have disinfectant mats to try to limit the entry of disease on to the premises, although the effectiveness of this is somewhat mute as no susceptible animals are present!

With regard to the car boot sale, it is not that the car boot sale goes on, but where it is situated and the fact that traders from outlying areas that are infected with foot and mouth disease are allowed on to the site that causes concern.

The site is next to a field of sheep and both public and traders have been seen 'petting' these animals (something that should be avoided at all costs). Traders have been arriving from outlying areas because other car boot sales have been cancelled due to the threat of FMD.

Why should we in Otley allow ours to continue. I believe it is irresponsible at this stage to continue to hold an event that congregates so many people, both local and from other areas, next door to livestock susceptible to FMD.

If this event were to be held in a car park in the middle of Leeds I would have no problems with it, but it is being held in a rural area next to a field of sheep. If the car boot sale must continue, at least have a modicum of commonsense and arrange for the sheep to be moved well away from the site (allowable under licence) and ensure all traders are local and have not been to infected areas.

M G Hutchinson MRCVS

The Dales Veterinary Centre,

Courthouse Street,

Otley.

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

Disease rumours

SIR,- I was very saddened to hear of the foot and mouth outbreak in Rawdon, necessitating the slaughter of livestock at Westbrook Farm. It is now apparent that the disease is out of control and it affects us all.

There have been many conflicting reports about how the outbreak started and why it spread so fast and no doubt we will soon see an official inquiry. I shall be particularly interested to see if there is any truth in the rumours that the Government knew that an outbreak was imminent months ago, and that the disease was spread in part by the movement of livestock by traders seeking to take illicit advantage of subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy.

If the latter is the case, it would provide further proof of the need to reform this system, which is potentially as harmful to farmers as it is to consumers. Unnecessarily long movements of livestock clearly constitute a risk, and I also hope that a key response to this crisis will be the re-opening of local abattoirs which have been unwisely closed under both this Government and

the last.

It is also clear that we need more Government vets, although I am not optimistic that either Labour or the Tories will be prepared to invest in their training, given their record in other public services.

David Hall-Matthews

Prospective Liberal Democrat

Parliamentary Candidate,

Leeds North West.

Golden day

SIR, - My sister and her husband came down to Otley for their Golden Wedding. It took place on March 31, which was also my sister's birthday. They are May and Alex Brown. They were married at St John's Parish Church at Chopwell, Tyne and Wear.

Two of her nieces, who were bridesmaids 50 years ago are Valerie Marshall and Maureen Birch; they are both my daughters and they both live in Otley. They celebrated on the day at the Rose and Crown in Otley.

They both love Otley. May has visited here since she was 14 years old. Alex loves to walk in and around Otley, finding new areas that have altered all the years he has known the town. Later they met up with friends, nieces and their husbands.

Ivy Ward

Whiteley Croft Garth,

Otley.