Time to abandon this secret caucus

I attended the meeting and was happy to share a platform with Coun Latty. I have sat on the planning committee for the last eight years, the longest consecutive current member of the committee to do so, and Coun Latty felt I had a substantial amount of knowledge to share with the objectors.

Mr King asks for politics to be taken out of planning. I strongly support his view. However, Labour Leeds City Council does not. One hour before the planning committee commences a Labour Group meeting takes place behind closed doors, at which time the agenda for the meeting is discussed.

The Labour Group emerges from its secret deliberations and head straight for the planning meeting. This practice has been abandoned by almost every other local authority in the country as an impression of pre-determining planning applications in a political environment is given.

The Conservative and Lib Dem groups do not hold such meetings.

I know Mr King will support me in tabling a white paper motion at the next full council meeting demanding the Labour Group abandons its practice of discussing planning applications in secret, behind closed doors.

It may interest your readers to know that after such a meeting a couple of months ago, Coun Mike Dunn and his Labour colleagues emerged from such a meeting and voted in favour of the 69 houses on the Silver Cross site. The Conservatives on the committee did not support the recommendation.

Coun John Proctor

Prospective Conservative

Parliamentary Candidate,

33 Town Street,

Horsforth.

Marsden facts

SIR,- Regarding your story 'Guiseley bid to keep name' (Sep 21, page 7). Here are some details about the Rev Samuel Marsden which readers may find of interest.

He was born in Bagley, near Farsley in 1765, but soon after his family moved to Farsley where he grew up with cottage weaving and the production of wool from local sheep.

While only a boy, Samuel left the family home and went to live with an uncle in Horsforth, at that time in the parish of Guiseley. His uncle was a blacksmith and Samuel lived and worked at the smithy.

As he grew up he became influenced by Methodism, which at that time was an innovation. One of the revival groups of the Church of England at that time was a society named the Elland Society and Marsden accepted an invitation from this society to train as a clergyman for the established church.

He was confirmed at Guiseley Parish Church and began his formal education at the home of the Rev Samuel Stones at Rawdon, a founder member of the society.

Some time elapsed, and eventually Marsden was sent to live with the Rev Joseph Milner, who was headmaster of Hull Grammar School - a move which would become important to Marsden as it eventually gave him contact to the two great classical scholars of the time, Isaac and Joseph Milner.

Joseph was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and consequently Marsden was established in Magdalene College.

Marsden was then ordained and through the influence of William Wilberforce he was offered and accepted a position as chaplain to the Penal Colony in New South Wales, Australia. This was where he lived and worked for the rest of his days, arriving in early 1794 until he died there in 1838.

At Parramatta, 20 miles up the river, he built the beautiful church of St John, now the Cathedral of St John. He was known as a cruel man, was disliked by the government and was nicknamed 'the flogging parson'.

He was also instrumental in bringing together the Maori tribes of New Zealand and educating them after making seven dangerous missions there.

With his West Riding background, he also became a very successful farmer and a great sheep breeder. He was responsible for the start of the wool trade between Australia and England.

In the late 1800s brothers Hugh and Arthur Claughton came to Guiseley from Horsforth - their mother was a Marsden - and set up a business, making heavy working boots and shoes. They eventually acquired a factory which is now part of the Silver Cross works.

They built houses, such as Richmond Terrace, and the ones by the works, Marsden Terrace, named after the Rev Samuel Marsden, of whom they were proud.

The last house, number 2, was sold to Silver Cross a few years ago and consequently they have disappeared and Guiseley's only link with the past and the Rev Samuel Marsden with them.

Mr J P Cooper

41 Silverdale Drive,

Guiseley.

Fooling some ...

SIR, At the Labour Party Conference, Chancellor Brown produced a torrent of hypocritical rhetoric to placate pensioners. He knows he has only to fool some of the people, some of the time, for New Tory Labour to retain power.

Brown is determined to fiddle with pensions and do everything possible to avoid increasing the basic pension and restoring the link with earnings. Under the guise of 'targeting' we are to have further complications of credits to increase the obstacles to a decent pension. And yet, the policies he introduced of fuel payments and free television licences benefit millionaires equally with the poor. Where is the 'targeting' in this?

We have targeting and means testing for the poor but no targeting or progressive income tax to recover money from rich pensioners. This is ignored. Ask yourself why he makes it as difficult as possible for the poor to obtain a decent pension and as easy as possible for the rich to accumulate wealth. Answer: because like all New Labour leaders, he is a Tory.

To add further insult, he boasts of lifting children out of poverty but says nothing about the extra 100,000 pensioners and six million carers he has plunged into poverty. Pensioners - don't be fooled by these slick Tory con men. Demand your rights to a decent basic pension linked to earnings.

Malcolm Naylor

21 Grange View,

Otley.

Pharmacy praise

SIR, - I would like to say how glad I was to see Broad Ings Pharmacy in the Wharfedale Observer for the newspaper's Best Business Award.

My son was born three months premature, weighing 1Ib 11oz. Although he is still small he is now at home and has been since June.

James is on 24-hour oxygen and a special formula milk as well as numerous medicines. Mr Edmonds has been wonderful and especially terrific during the petrol fiasco.

He made sure we had enough oxygen and other supplies so not to be left without. He also acts as a mediator between myself and the GP.

I cannot express enough gratitude and feel readers should know about this outstanding service which he provides.

Angela Dixon

31 Dicks Garth Road

Menston.

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.

Police pledge

SIR, I understand the community's concerns about the future of public opening hours at Otley Police Station. No decisions have been made, but I would like to reassure people that policing Otley is our main priority and we are committed to delivering the best possible service around the clock to local residents.

Unfortunately, due to staff sickness and an officer taking retirement, we have been forced to slightly reduce the opening hours of the public help desk to between 9am and 5pm for a short period of time. I stress that this does no affect the level of 24-hour police cover provided by officers in the area.

We have decided not to arrange any extra cover for the public help desk during this period because we would rather put available officers on the beat fighting crime where the public wants to see them, rather than behind a desk. In the meantime, all out of hour telephone calls to Otley Police Station will be automatically referred to the 24-hour help desk at Weetwood where officers can quickly respond to any issues.

There is also a telephone facility outside Otley Station which personal callers can use when the station is closed. This puts them in direct contact with officers.

A survey showed that the number of personal callers to Otley Station is very low. On average during the busiest times of the week between 10am and 2pm, only two people an hour attended and on Saturdays and Sundays 20 people a day attended - most of those callers were asking for directions.

Most people prefer to telephone and our 24-hour help desk at Weetwood Police Station can easily handle general inquiries. In emergencies the public should always contact 999.

We have decided to review public opening hours at Otley. If not many people are using Otley Station, it would seem to make more sense putting the officers on the beat where they can be more effective in the fight against crime.

No decision will be taken without public consultation which will get under way shortly and I must also stress that that operational officers will still work from Otley around the clock to respond to local issues and to give a high standard of service to local residents.

The reduction of public opening hours will not affect this. We want to ensure that we get the best possible use of our resources and put officers where the public really need them.

Chief Insp Nicholas Bartrum

Weetwood Police,

Otley Police Station.