Crest complaints 'were ignored'

Residents of Deaconess Court received a letter in December, 1999, from Crest Homes. The letter stated that inconvenience and disruption would be kept to a minimum and should we have any questions we were to contact Crest Homes.

In May this year I phoned head office to make a complaint. I was told someone would ring me back, which they never did.

A week later I phoned again to be told that the person was on holiday and was given the name of Steven Day who was the development director. I wrote to Mr Day. In my letter I complained about the noise of lorries early in the morning and vibrations from the work causing my flat to shake.

I suggested a few ideas and asked for a reply. I have never received one. My letter was not even acknowledged so when I read in this paper last week that other residents had complained to the parish council and Steven Day is quoted as saying that they should have got in touch with Crest Homes first, I feel totally disgusted.

It seems to me that the residents did the right thing. In my experience Crest Homes has no respect for local residents and is only interested in making a fat profit. If you are living near an area Crest Homes intend to develop, I'd do everything possible to stop it.

Brian Daly

3 Deaconess Court,

Queen's Road,

Ilkley.

Crest 'uncaring'

SIR, - Stephen Day, development director of Crest Homes, should be thanked for confirming Councillor Stevenson's opinion of the uncaring attitude as expressed in your report last week, when he commented that residents should have got in touch with their office or seen the site manager if they had any complaints.

In fact, several residents have accumulated large telephone bills trying to get help from Harrogate and worn a regular path to the site office - all to no avail, which is why they felt the need to turn to the council.

For example, on Wednesday, September 20, a member of the site office staff promised as a temporary measure, that the following day he would have some gravel or similar material put on the flooded right of way so that the public, in particular pensioners, could use it without being ankle deep in cement contaminated mud, or fear of slipping and falling.

Typically, to date this has not been done.

With regard to 'I am asking my technical manager to look into structural cracks' Crest has been aware of this problem since Christmas.

Linda Cracknell

The Residents,

7 Deaconess Court,

Queen's Road,

Ilkley.

Views contrast

SIR, - It was interesting to note the two different attitudes of the letters in last Thursday's Gazette with regard to the fuel tax.

On the one hand, Mr Shaw's letter was calm and reasonable, comparing behaviour now and in 1940. Having spent five years in Africa in the army, I can testify to the comradeship which develops, each depending on the other.

In contrast, Mr Naylor's bitter words, blaming all and sundry about the cost of fuel when the main reason for increasing the tax was the damage being done to the ozone layer by the internal combustion engine.

Mr Shaw points out the benefits farmers get from reduced fuel tax and from reclaiming VAT, and recent subsidies of some £200 million pounds to alleviate the drops in price of their produce.

It is known that OPEC is largely to blame for the petrol price and, in any case, a 3p reduction in the price of a litre of petrol is insignificant compared with £1,000-plus reduction in the prices of new cars.

It seems that Mr Naylor blames Mr Blair and that he is responsible for all the shortcomings. I would point out that Mr Blair inherited the Dome (this being the idea of the Tories, and being in being when Mr Blair came to office).

Mr memory goes back to Mrs Thatcher. The disaster of the poll tax, inflation of 15 per cent, decimation of the engineering and manufacturing industries, low taxes for the better-off and basing pensions upon inflation and not average earnings.

After 18 years in office education was in a mess, Virginia Bottomley was closing hospitals (in this area we lost five and she even tried to sell of St Bartholemews) and it was boom or bust in the economy.

God forbid that we have Mr Hague for Prime Minister.

Contrast all this with New Labour's efforts: a stable economy, efforts to improve education, the NHS and certainly pensions. One may be able to question one of these things, but at least the Government is trying to address the mess left by Mr Major.

It is noticeable that Mr Naylor is not troubled by the damage to the ozone caused by the pollution of the atmosphere. If he has children he might spare a thought for the future.

For unless drastic steps are taken by all nations to reduce it by 2050, with the ozone layer damaged to the extent of some millions of square miles now, one shudders to think of conditions by then.

To conclude, Mr Naylor omits to say how the Tories increased fuel tax year by year. I prefer the attitude of Mr Shaw.

K C BENNETT

April Cottage,

34 Skipton Road,

Ilkley.

Appalling design

SIR, - At last someone has spoken out about the appalling Wilcon development that assaults the eye when entering our village of Burley-in-Wharfedale.

This disgusting site does nothing to enhance the area - indeed it bears more than a passing resemblance to The Gorbals. These houses are totally out of keeping with the surrounding properties.

What on earth strangers make of the entrance to Burley I shudder to think. If this is the best design that Wilcon architects can come up with they should hang their heads in shame.

I bet they wouldn't want this mess on their doorsteps. It does nothing to make me feel easy that they have acquired the Aireville Terrace school site.

Slowly but surely, Burley is being transformed from a village to a giant housing estate and when the Scalbor development is completed with more than a hundred and fifty houses what then and where next before we say enough is enough.?

I've lived here for more than 30 years and, of course, we must move forward,but for goodness sake let's be sensible and not allow developers to inflict further eyesores on our once lovely village,or we will find it's too late and Burley will simply suffocate.

Dina Roe

11 Wrexham Road,

Burley in Wharfedale.

Raise the voices

SIR, - How very welcome were the comments by Dick Hargrave in your paper recently, and also those by Barbara Cowling some weeks ago about the Wellfield Farm development in Burley.

We must continue to raise our voices loudly! Before every level green site in our pleasant village is cemented over and every pleasing view obscured - in this case by a two-and-a-half-storey monstrosity that never should have left the drawing board.

I wonder what the architect had in mind; a dockside dosshouse perhaps?

Kathleen Taylor

Manse Road,

Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Sunglasses left

SIR, - Could I please, through your letters page, advise that we have a pair of prescription sunglasses that have been left in our shop accidentally by an unknown customer.

Whilst those halcyon days of summer (what summer, you may ask), appear to be long gone, these items are not cheap and will be of some use in the future to their owner.

Anyone wishing to claim them should either telephone us on (01943) 817161 or call into the shop, whereby we will be happy to return them.

JAN & JULIAN RICHARDS

The Kitchen Range Tile Centre,

28 Leeds Road,

Ilkley,

LS29 8DS.

Book sale thanks

SIR, - May I, through the columns of the Ilkley Gazette, thank all those many people involved in last Saturday's Giant Book Sale at Christchurch on The Grove which, to date, has raised a wonderful £1,600 towards the CTI (Churches Together in Ilkley) Millennium Project to house three young people with learning difficulties in the town.

A very big thank you goes to all those who so generously emptied their shelves and attics of many thousands of books, to the many willing helpers, to those who did a magnificent job emptying the hall at the end of the day - and to all those who bought books.!

The response to our appeal for books was overwhelming and space did not enable us to display all those donated.

We have been able to borrow a vacant shop in the Station Plaza on a short-term basis and the premises will be open each day this week until Saturday, September 30, from 10am to 4pm. Do come along and browse through a fascinating selection of books at your leisure.

HAMISH CURRIE

Panorama Lodge,

Queens Drive,

Ilkley.

BSE findings

SIR, - Adam Pritchard, the Tory hopeful for our area, must be pleased with the other Tory spokesman - Curmudgeon of Beggarsdale, and Mr Hague will be having 15 pints these days.

Curmudgeon should be aware though that the report on BSE is due soon (13 volumes) and he and his Tory friends won't like the findings. BSE has cost us nearly £4.5 billion to date and is still costing £400 million a year.

If the nation is being led to ruin, it started in the BSE years. When the dust finally settles, I hope mad cow disease is controlled, but I also hope that people remember who the culprits who started it all were.

They were the same bunch that gave us sleaze in all its glory.

F Dickinson

Larkfield Road

Rawdon.