Letters

I'm sure 10,000plus Silsden objectors to the UDP realised that it was futile even attempting reasoned debate with a man who told everyone he was 'sick and tired of these people'.

If Cllr Womersley's belief in a society of equality is sincere why is he pursuing a policy which leads to the creation of ghettos in Keighley and Bradford?

Are these green-field sites only good enough for those who can afford £80,000 for a house? Equality requires access to decent employment. I see little action - even with the SRB - to attract jobs which pay the TUC's recommended minimum.

Cllr Womersley accuses the Aire-Worth Reform Association of stealing ideas.

I refer him to its 1996 policy document to see where much of his council's latest policy comes from.

He says the association does not use facts when opposing his 'predict and provide' dogma and claims no one has challenged the latest figure of 5.2 million new homes needed.

The association contacted the country's top expert on housing and planning, Professor Glen Bramley of the Herriot-Watt University, who says that these projections are self-fulfilling: "government predicts the future based on past trends; houses are built and people move in."

Finally, a few more facts:

The owners of the 10,000 homes planned under the UDP in the region stretching from Bingley to Eastburn will: create an extra 5,000 school bus journeys, which is enough to fill 63 double-deck buses; generate 5,000 train journeys needing an extra 18 trains during the rush-hour; own 8,000 cars - enough to create a nose-to-tail queue 30 miles long.

Cllr Womersley is advocating total meltdown of the Aire-Worth infrastructure.

ANTHONY WRIGHT,

West Lane, Keighley.

SIR - It was a sadness to read about Cllr Womersley's hate mail. (Letter Page 13.3.98) However, rambling and near incoherent rhetoric added nothing worthwhile to the facts.

DAVID SAMUELS,

Aire-Worth

Reform Association.

SIR - Cllr Jack Womersley tells us (KN March 13) that throughout the planning debate he has been 'polite and helpful'.

So that's it then. We've been getting it wrong. All the time, Gentleman Jack has been striving to be nice to STAG and the Aire-Worth Group!

In his letter he goes on to illustrate this point. Members of STAG are described as 'self-centred' and belonging to the 'fortunate few'. Of the Aire-Worth Group: "They give no facts to prove their case. They use their only asset, that is other people's ideas"!

What a shocking dismissal of the efforts of both groups - efforts which have involved huge sacrifices of time and money in painstaking research, printing, duplicating, telephone calls etc not to mention laborious door-to-door work - not exactly the work of self-centred people!

Fortunate few? I know for a fact that affluence is not one of the attributes of STAG members. During the Hearing it was Bradford Council who could afford an expensive barrister, while STAG's legal representation was limited by lack of funds.

If Hainsworth Road is anything to go by (mainly luxury two-garage dwellings) the houses intended for Silsden's green field will indeed be for the 'fortunate few'.

Cllr Womersley finishes with this chilling declaration: "It will be Labour, not the Aire-Worth Group, or STAG, that will change the national planning rules".

Neither group claims to be a political party and it is nonsense to make the above comparison. They lack the political and financial muscle of Tory and Labour Parties. That is their material weakness. It is also their moral strength.

HAMISH HEY,

Craven Avenue, Silsden.

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