Letters to the Editor

In a climate where we are being encouraged to leave the car at home it is important and vital that public transport becomes more customer friendly. Judging by my own experiences I have to say it has a long way to go.

I regularly use the Hoppa bus which threads its way around my area and for the most part I am pleased with the service. However I have to say the relationship between the drivers and their customers is very poor.

Just recently a passenger who lives near me was told by a driver that he wouldn't be allowed to use the bus if he was on duty. His only crime was to ask the driver to stop.

The hoppa is supposed to be a hail and ride service but time after time the drivers are reluctant to stop where they are asked to.

I appreciate sometimes it may be dangerous to stop in certain places but most passengers use their commonsense when ringing the bell.

'It's not a taxi service' is a frequent comment from some drivers who are verbally abusive and rude.

I suggest better training in public relations would help drivers communicate with their customers good and bad. They should be reminded that the fare paying passengers are keeping them in jobs and should be shown some common courtesy.

The train service is not much better. Trains are regularly cancelled leaving passengers stood on cold unfriendly platforms with no-one around to explain what is happening. The platforms in lonely stations are frightening places for women and children.

Recently I had to leave my 13 year old daughter on the platform at Keighley where she was waiting to catch a train to Bradford. She was going to meet her father who was waiting at the other end of the line. Knowing this I still felt worried leaving her, wondering if the train would be on time and thinking even if it was on time would she be safe on the train.

She only had minutes on her own before the train was due as I had to leave to pick up my other children from school. When I got home I sat by the telephone chewing my fingernails until her father rang to say she had arrived safely at the other end. I vowed then and there I wouldn't go through that experience a second time. I wouldn't allow my daughter to travel by herself on the train again but what a sad state of affairs to be afraid to use the train!

There should be a platform attendant on hand to help and advise with any passengers and their difficulties. It would also make the station feel like a safer place.

I am sure personal safety is a major factor in why people shun the railways. Car v public transport, I would say public transport - last resort!

MRS L BUTCHER,

Raynham Crescent, Keighley.

SIR - I was absolutely incensed to read the story of a driver facing enquiry for leaving school children at the bus stop.

The very same thing happened in Cross Roads on Wednesday this week, admittedly the children were probably older. The 665 bus leaving Haworth station at 8.02 for Keighley usually arrives at Cross Roads with standing room only.

Normally we all cram on, school children pushed up to the drivers cab (neither comfy nor safe). However on Wednesday the driver refused to let us all on and left myself, a colleague and a group of school children behind.

We walked to the next stop and caught the first bus that came, a First Direct, Huddersfield bus.

We paid 95p, despite having passes (valid on Kly & District buses only). We arrived in Keighley at 8.40, however the connection we catch to Dalton Lane goes at 8.35.

So we had no choice but to catch a Bradford bus to Aireworth Road and walk in from that end, arriving late for work and cross.

In between, we spoke to an inspector who told us he knew the bus had lots of school children (about 27- 30 usually), but he couldn't not let them on or he'd have irate mums ringing up! We don't want anyone refused entry to the bus, we need the school children and ourselves to arrive safely and on time.

We have asked time and again for a bigger bus or a school special to pick up at Cross Roads but to no avail.

Just for the record, my colleague and I caught the bus on Thursday, some of the school children behind us were not so lucky, they were left again!

C M THOMAS,

Ruth Street, Cross Roads.

A spokesman for Stuart Wild, managing director of Keighley & District Travel says: K&DT is very aware of the current heavy passenger demand being made on the 0755 journey from Oakworth to Bradford on service 665.

It is difficult to predict demand for a given journey from school term to school term and from year to year. Heavy demand may call for a larger bus at very short notice and this is often difficult to achieve.

However K&DT very much regrets any inconvenience caused to our customers and very much hopes to be able to provide a solution to the current problem as soon as possible."

SIR - Your correspondent J Preston asks (January 21, 2000) if independent residential and nursing homes are inspected to the same fire standard as the local authority homes.

I can reassure him, but I am afraid that the question is the other way round. For many years, independent homes have been inspected to a rigorous standard which has not applied to the public sector.

It is only within the last few years that Crown Immunity has been lifted from hospitals, subjecting them to the same rules as us.

The reason that Ingrow Green has this problem is that at last it has to measure up to the same standard as the independent sector - and the Local Authority hasn't the resources. This is not necessarily anyone's fault.

The council has a pint of money and a quart of problems. However the care of each person in Ingrow Green costs over a hundred pounds a week more than Social Services pays the independent sector to do the same job, and yet lack of money has never been an excuse that we are allowed to use. Why then is lack of money a problem for Ingrow Green? Give the independent sector the same amount of money for each resident and anyone of us could make our homes sing - and our residents and staff too.

J Preston makes a telling point about respite care, however. Contrary to popular belief even the independent sector agrees that the best place is home. We are only here for when that finally fails. Respite care is a vital resource for many people and one that can make a difference between keeping ill people in the community, and having to give them up once and for all to long term care.

Respite care does cost money, however, and if the Local Authority cannot provide it themselves they should contract with the independent sector at a realistic rate.

Either way, it has got to be a better solution for families that can still cope, with help, than taking up a long term care bed that could be used by someone who really has no alternative.

ANDREW MAKIN,

Norwood House Nursing

Home, High Spring Gardens,

Keighley.

SIR - I was accused in your letters section of rubbishing some accident statistics because I found them inconvenient.

However, it seems to me that the word the correspondent should have used was not 'inconvenient' but 'irrelevant'.

It might conceivably be true that of 2800 road accidents only four per cent were caused by excessive speed - as the letter from the Association of British Drivers claimed - given a definition of road accidents that includes everything from clumsy parking to motorised murder.

But, in a discussion of road safety, the relevant correlation was between speeding and human casualties, and these statistics give a quite different picture.

According to last week's Sunday Telegraph, over a third of road deaths each year are attributed to excessive speed - well over a thousand human lives. The chairman of the Association of British Drivers forgot to refer to these figures in his letter. I do not think his subject at Oxford could have been statistics.

Last week's correspondent also described speed limits, in his medical analogy, as a palliative that disguises the symptoms of a host of other driving deficiencies. Again I would take issue with one of his words and suggest instead of palliative the word panacea, a universal remedy against road death.

This might be a difficult pill for some motorists to swallow but, as I observed in my previous letter, research shows it to be highly effective.

DR N A ANDREWS,

Douglas Street, Cross Roads

SIR - Having spent some considerable time recently, through your columns, answering points on planning made by Mrs Blackman and others it is a little galling to be accused by her (letters Jan 21) of 'avoiding the issues'.

I know I have supplied over simplified answers to her inaccurate assertions. Rather I have tried to explain the issues involved to those who have concerns but a genuinely open ind. Now she asks me a serious of loaded questions and demands 'yes or no' answers. Instead I will try to explain the real situation.

1 Yes, Bradford does have a many faceted housing regeneration programme (see SRB etc.)

2 It all depends on what you mean by 'disproportionate'. There is obviously more undeveloped land outside the inner city. If developing this land is unacceptable to local people the answer lies firstly in the UDP Review and secondly in the electoral process.

The answers to the next two questions require a knowledge of representative democracy which Mrs Blackman either doesn't have or chooses not to exhibit.

3 What does 'the majority of the public view' mean? The views of elected representatives, letters to a newspaper or a number of names on a petition? Any politician who ignores public opinion will have a short shelf life. Our job is to evaluate public representations along side all the other factors which are involved in a planning application. If we get it consistently wrong we'll pay the price.

4 Yes, I voted for the UDP.

It was the policy of our party, which had won a large majority on the council. Politicians do not gain the power to change things by making the odd quixotic gesture but by gaining the respect and support of their colleagues.

Whether I have made a positive contribution to Keighley Planning or not is best answered by my constituents and my colleagues.

5 Yes, I support our MP, Ann Cryer, in her concerns about planning policy in the Keighley area and am already campaigning to get as much change as possible through the review of the UDP.

6 Yes, New Labour needs to change planning law nationally. However I'll have to rely on my friend, Ann Cryer, MP, to do that.

Finally, might I suggest that as Mrs Blackman holds such strong opinions she offers herself for election in May rather than just asking questions?

CLLR M LEATHLEY,

Deputy Chairman

Keighley Planning Panel

Editor's note:- In line with our policy full rights of reply have now been given on this issue.

SIR - I note with misgiving the latest rise in interest rates, which we in Keighley can ill afford.

This decision is likely to increase the value of the pound and exacerbate problems faced by exporters and everybody whose income depends on foreign trade - especially with countries using the notoriously weak Euro currency.

We should avoid any smooth sales talk from Socialists and the Lib Dems seeking to persuade us to join the Euro and hand over control of interest rates to a remote European Central Bank.

They would make decisions based on what was good for Europe, not what was good for Britain. This rate rise is bad enough, that would be even worse.

This interest rate rise will affect the agricultural community especially hard and is a further example of the Government's wilful neglect of rural communities.

SIMON COOKE,

Conservative Prospective

Parliamentary Candidate.

SIR - I feel very strongly about the issue of 'dog mess problems continue', which was printed in Friday's edition.

As a dog owner I also agree dog mess is a big problem, but maybe when you have read this letter you might agree with me that it isn't just the dog owners problem but that of Bradford councils.

I got a new dog in February 1999, at the time I was living in Eastburn, I was living in a one bedroomed house with no garden which was on the main road, therefore, I was unable to keep a dustbin as I had nowhere to put it.

I contacted Bradford council with regard to dog bins which, may I add, are situated very frequently in North Yorkshire, but in West Yorkshire they do not exist.

I telephoned to ask for some dog bins to be provided in Eastburn, because I had no intention of taking my dog's mess home with me to put in my kitchen bin for obvious reasons. I was told, after numerous conversations with a few different people, because of my situation as long as it was put in a sealed bag I could put it in the public litter bins.

That didn't really help me though as the only litter bin I could find in Eastburn was a small one hanging on a post next to the bus stop, which I am sure you will agree isn't a very hygienic place to put it either. I telephoned again, but then I gave it up as a bad job because I am still waiting for the call I was told I would receive from the dog warden.

Now I live in Steeton, the situation is just as bad, except I do now have a garden, therefore a wheelie bin.

Even so it does spoil the whole enjoyment of dog walking having to carry around your dog's mess sometimes for miles before getting home. So instead of complaining about people not picking up their dog's mess, why not help to get us dog owners some dog bins like North Yorkshire have got, that's if Bradford council will even listen to you. I can assure you if dog bins were provided there will definitely be less dog mess around.

CLAIRE SAWDON,

Upper School Street,

Steeton.

SIR - Is someone you know, or are you a truly terrible driver? Do you think you know Britain's worst roadhog, parallel parker or backseat driver? Perhaps you've been a victim of road rage, or live next door to car-owning nightmare neighbours. Maybe you know - or even are - the clamper or traffic warden 'from hell'.

Or is there anything else about motoring that drives you crazy - perhaps a problem specific to your area? LWT is currently making a new driving series for ITV, and we are looking for contributions from people with good stories to tell. Whatever your story, we would like to hear from you.

Please call the production team on 0171 522 4509, leave your name and number and a brief description of your story and we will call you back.

SANDY WATSON,

Producer, L WT

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.