Readers' Letters

In the 34 days which separate these two festivals Britain participates in massive aerial assaults on Baghdad which kill and maim thousands of helpless and totally innocent Iraqi civilians.

Who are we kidding when we stand with bowed heads before the cenotaph, or gaze at the Prince of Peace in his crib? Surely not even ourselves.

E Swindells,

Spring Row, Oxenhope.

SIR - There is not unanimous support for the building of the Bingley Relief road. This Association continues to oppose it because it is economically and environmentally unjustified.

The Keighley business people who support the BRR would not, I am sure, invest their own money in a project estimated to give such a low and uncertain rate of return. The Highways Agency estimate a cost of £60m for two miles of road, making it the most expensive project in the region on a per mile basis.

The benefit/cost ratio (a measure of return to capital) puts the scheme 12th out of the region's 13 schemes covered by the Government's recent roads review. There is no hard evidence other than the anecdotes from business people that the BRR would benefit the economy in Keighley.

Environmentally the road will be directly damaging to Bingley, due to the impact upon the landscape and increased air pollution and noise due to the greater volume of traffic attracted into the town. In the longer term the road will lead to greater greenfield development at Silsden, Riddlesden and elsewhere in Airedale.

Hard Ings and the Kildwick to Skipton schemes are unlikely ever to be built if the Government keeps to its new found transport policy. Driving times from Keighley and further up the valley will hardly be reduced. What sense is there in spending so much taxpayer's money on a valueless project ?

R J Butler,

Secretary, Bingley Environmental

Transport Association,

Villa Road, Bingley.

SIR - As I write this letter I am listening to the superb piano playing of John Briggs on one of his lovely CDs. Alright, this is not to everyone's taste, particularly younger people, but how anyone can complain about the noise being too loud I have no idea.

Last Friday I spent 20 minutes standing listening to all this loud music, it was superb and a wonderful change to the music which usually assails my ears from all the shops in the Airedale Centre.

Everyone seems to be trying to outdo the other with mostly pop music.

At this time of the year, when everyone is busy shopping, it was a very welcome change to take time out and just stand and listen.

If that is Birthdays' attitude then from my point of view there are plenty of other card shops in Keighley and I for one will be using them.

I look forward to hearing Mr Briggs play in Airedale Centre at some time in the near future.

Catherine Andrews,

Worth Avenue,

Keighley.

SIR - The demise of the small family farms due to economic reasons in areas designated as green belt land poses the problem as to what will happen to this land in the future.

If it is not maintained as in the past, it soon becomes neglected, resulting in the growth of undesirable vegetation such as rushes, and becomes a dumping ground for rubbish.

Will it then come under pressure to be reclassified as brown land by developers, to allow more housing to be built, resulting in small villages being swamped and losing their character?

There is an area in Haworth known as Greenfields, which seems to fit this bill, and would, if access were available, soon result in the loss of one of the last areas of open land.

If by chance the community centre, which at the moment seems to have a doubtful future, were to be removed, the way to this area would be open for the developments of roads.

One can imagine what would have happened if the old Haworth UDC had not created the park in the 1920's.

F Slack,

Pink Street,

Coldshaw, Haworth.

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