Letters to the Editor

I cannot imagine how anyone can produce a system for encouraging students to take on further education by offering them between £5 and £30 per week, depending on their parents' joint income.

How can a system which allocates an allowance for one student up to £30 and allocates nothing to another student be a fair system?

Many six form students take on part-time and Saturday jobs to provide themselves with the income that the average 16-18 year old requires these days. They have to work between 10 and 15 hours a week to earn £30.

Some have parents who earn above the government stated threshold. Why should these students be penalised by having to work longer to receive the same amount of money as the students who receive the allowance? Surely they will be disadvantaged by having less study time.

How can one student be rewarded with a £50 bonus for simply having a good attendance record and another student not be rewarded? It may even cause problems between the students, and may even have a negative effect on those that do not receive the bonus.

Surely it must be the same payment to all students, regardless of background, or no payment at all.

MR S JESSUP,

Calton Road, Long Lee.

Sir - Whilst I am pleased that the Keighley News has highlighted the very important fact that many young people in Keighley are eligible for the new Education Maintenance Allowance, I am concerned that the headline "Pay days for pupils who stay in school" and some of the comments in the article were incomplete and could confuse both parents and the children affected.

The Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is a means tested benefit that has been introduced to provide young people with the opportunity to stay in education, but not just at school.

It is about helping support young people so that they can choose education or training at 16 rather than a job with no prospects or unemployment.

I think it was well summed up in the comment by Keighley MP Ann Cryer when she said: "It is of concern to me that so many people leave school at 16 without qualifications. This allowance will enable more students to continue their education."

The introduction of the Education Maintenance Allowance means that students can come to Keighley College to study a whole range of full-time academic or practical subjects and receive the Allowance from September 2000. The Education Maintenance Allowance is about providing young people with choices, and it is not about limiting choices to those provided at school.

Further information may be obtained from the Keighley and District Guidance Centre at the college (telephone number: 01535 618600).

D B HARDAKER

Principal

SIR - School fears loss... I accept that certain comments reported in your article refer to unsubstantiated remarks made at a meeting of the Oakbank governing body. However, I would like to clarify one item that refers to this school because it is quite incorrect and may lead people to draw the wrong conclusions.

Beckfoot School uniform does not include a requirement to wear a blazer, and there are no plans whatsoever to introduce a blazer.

The present uniform at Beckfoot was drawn up following consultations with our students and their parents. The fact that it is used by 100 per cent of the pre-16 students clearly demonstrates the success of our efforts to involve people in our decision-making.

I would not deem to comment on a neighbouring school, but since it is clearly your policy to correct factual mistakes I would be grateful if you could counter the impression given that Beckfoot School is to introduce blazers.

MICHAEL BREEZE,

Senior Teacher,

Beckfoot Grammar School.

SIR - Bradford - listening to the People - what a ridiculous tagline!

How inappropriate - in particular to anyone with objections to any proposed building development and nowhere better illustrated than in the Planning Committee's handling of the proposals of Skipton Properties developments at Haworth and Long Lee.

Indeed, it would appear that as far as permission goes, a few extras promised to planners by the developer (as outlined in your article) and he has carte blanche.

In the case of the Long Lee development, what emerged once the developer came on site bore no relation to what was given permission....yet nothing was or has been done - in fact all the 'breaches' of Planning permission have somehow become absorbed and accepted into the current proposals.

The eyesore and its attendant problems remain - flooding, crumbling of gardens etc. 20 months later, yet our fears and concerns are deemed 'negative and repetitive' by the newly arrived Chairman of the Planning Committee.

Now, having got the development at Haworth through and before the Ombudsman has a chance to make comment, the planners and same developer are railroading through the fiasco that is the Birch Tree Gardens proposal.

What promises and extras will the Planning Committee accept for passing this?

And should the tagline change to 'Bradford - open to offers'?

Kate MacKenzie,

Cherry Tree Rise,

Long Lee.

SIR - On behalf of the committee I wish to thank all who made this year's 25th anniversary Straw Race a success despite the weather!

A big thank you to the runners and their sponsors and to all who give their time so freely on our behalf.

Special thanks to the people of Oxenhope for their continued support.

JUDITH FISHER,

Secretary,

Oxenhope Straw Race.

SIR - I am writing to thank all the organisations in your local area for their participation and contribution to the huge success of the 15th annual Volunteers Week.

We would also like to thank everyone involved for all the publicity the Week received.

This year was one of the biggest Volunteers Weeks so far.

As you will see from the scrapbook a huge variety of organisations took part in recognising and celebrating their volunteer involvement.

If you would like to find out some of what went on during the Week and to keep in touch with our plans for next year, International Year of Volunteers, visit the Volunteers Week website at www.volunteersweek.org.uk

FIONA SHADBOLT,

Head of UK Volunteers Week.

SIR - Re the cost of petrol, (KN August 4, page 2). It is an insult to the intelligence of thinking people to lay the whole blame for the high price of petrol at the feet of the present government.

In the early nineties the chancellor in John Major's Tory administration, one Nigel Lawson, introduced the petrol tax escalator, an inflation plus a percentage tax on petrol fuel.

In the following year a little higher percentage was added, this continued until, and after, the new government took over. It has, thank goodness, been abandoned by our latest newly wed, 'Happy Gordon'.

The price of crude oil is determined by OPEC. Petrol, a refinement of crude oil, is now nearly £4 a gallon.

That other liquid, 'amber liquid' ie beer, now around sixteen pounds a gallon is of course almost all water and has been a source of revenue for governments over many years.

Should we now have an anti-beer campaign, ban the beer pumps, on one day a week, and a register to sign by the Antis (Aunties).

For myself, think I will stick to water, suitably boiled and cooled before use.

Ah well.

DAVID BALMER,

Jennings Close,

Silsden.

SIR - I fully agree with the comments made about the state of the front of the market.

Some of the drinkers are there by 7.30am (numbers increasing sometimes to a dozen through the day). The girls I work with and myself have seen them urinating. One girl did manage to get a policeman who had words with them.

As for the pigeons, the owl that was meant to help rid us of them was a waste of time because it never moved from the same place on top of M&S. They will always come back with the amount of seed put down for them, they must be the best fed pigeons around. I have given up telling people not to feed them as they bring vermin. I am not saying don't feed them, but not in this area.

Added to this is the state of the paving. I see the workmen have dug up again and made a bigger black blot on the landscape, even putting up three signs warning people of a tripping problem.

Unfortunately most people fall at the link with Low Street, it is very uneven as it approaches.

NAME AND

ADDRESS SUPPLIED.

SIR - I felt compelled to write to you following the publication last Friday of a photograph of Silsden Gala's Tug of War competition.

What possessed a fully-grown man to place a rope around his neck and allow people to try to throttle him with it?

What possessed the Gala authorities to allow it in the first place? and please could you explain whatever possessed a so-called 'responsible' local newspaper to print such a picture?

Do we not have enough tragedies each year of youngsters taking games with ropes too far and hanging themselves without displays of this sort?

I am not a killjoy and abhor the current 'nanny state' where we are barely allowed to breathe for ourselves, but surely this type of exhibition sends out the wrong message.

I also cannot understand why space for this type of photograph can be found in the Keighley News but not for pictures of winning gala floats from such as Keighley Gala procession.

At least gala floats do not need a PG certificate!

I unually enjoy my Keighley News but was left speechless last Friday.

SUE FOUCHER,

Dale View Close,Long Lee.

Editor's note:- I am grateful

to Mrs Foucher for raising this issue.

With hindsight we could have put on a rider much the same as a certain television programme stressing that such a 'stunt' should not be tried at home, and that it was carried out at the carnival by professionals.

I am more than happy to listen to readers' views and act on them where neccessary.

SIR - I wish to answer a letter from Simon R Winpenny printed on Friday June 23 in the Keighley News.

Readers can receive all the accurate, factual, true information on hunting free of charge on application to the Organisations with indisputable first hand knowledge backed up by videos taken by eye witnesses at hunts of the barbaric practice of hunting. Perhaps some readers will take the initiative to approach the following organisations and maybe join as active members once their concerns are verified.

The League Against Cruel Sports, telephone 0171-403-6155; Protect Our Wild Animals 020 83167852, 01736 740955, 01392 271948, 01932 864132; Animal Aid 01732 364546; Hunt Saboteurs Association - information from LACS.

Whilst the Royals enjoy their participation it is no good reason for the right minded to keep silent as the Bill to ban hunting with dogs needs to go through the House of Commons and then through the House of Lords to become law.

Any number of postcards addressed to Tony Blair printed 'No Ban No Vote' can be obtained free of charge or donation from POWA, Protect Our Wild Animals, simply by ringing 020 83167852, for concerned people to participate in bring ing about a change in the law to ban hunting with dogs, which has been outlawed in Germany since the 1930s.

PAULINE EDINGTON,

The Signal Box, Animal

Advice LinkLine, Bradford.

SIR - Has divorce meant that you have had to sell the family home and buy a smaller property?

Has your elderly parent had to sell their home to pay for their care?

Has an inheritance helped give you the money to buy a new home?

A Channel 4 documentary series would like to hear from people in any of these situations. Please call Nancy on 0207 313 6808.

Any help you can offer would be very much appreciated.

EMILY SHIELDS,

RDF Television, London.