Fouling problem is getting worse

From the archive, first published Friday 10th Feb 2006.

SIR - I write with regard to your article in the Craven Herald "Dog fouling problem getting worse."

As a busy childminder in Settle, I frequently walk children to and from my house to Settle Primary School. I usually have four children walking and a double pushchair. On one journey we counted no less that seven different lots of dog muck!

Luckily all the children I look after are very well behaved and walk nicely but their journey is hampered by these revolting piles. Quite apart from anything else, dog excrement poses a threat to health.

My own little girl said one day that she had had a horrible journey to school because of all the dog muck!

Why, oh why, do the owners of these dogs think it is acceptable to allow them to foul - often right in the middle of the pavement - without cleaning up? The offending piles increase during the winter months when we have darker evenings so obviously some owners aren't very proud of their actions.

Unfortunately, catching and prosecuting one person a year is obviously no deterrent. Craven District Council really needs to give this matter some urgent attention. Friends visiting from Bradford recently were horrified at how many filthy piles were on the pavement of our lovely town!

Helen Monks,

Registered childminder,

Settle.

SIR - The streets in Settle are very good but the dog muck just ruins them. It is most terrible when it is winter because the people who let their dogs pooh on the streets think that the other people won't see it for it is dark.

It is disgraceful and makes our walk to school horrible. It is horrible for all the people who suffer and it needs to be sorted out immediately.

Katie Askew (aged eight),

Settle.

SIR - Last month I took a film to be developed and printed at Maple Leaf Images in Sheep Street, Skipton. But as I approached the shop it was clearly empty. Thinking refurbishment was taking place I stood to read a notice on the door and re-read it, unwilling to believe the message spelling closure.

I was utterly dismayed. Nowhere have I ever had such dedicated and professional service as I have enjoyed for years at Maple Leaf Images.

No one has ever produced prints from my photographs of the standard and quality as perfected by Tony Harman and his team.

I want to thank the entire staff of Maple Leaf Images for that service and for hundreds of printed memories, which I have to enjoy and share for years. And I wish them all happiness and success wherever their paths lead on.

Perhaps a "Just Prints" service could emerge in a quiet location - I'd be sure to find you!

Farewell and au revoir

Margaret Pemberton,

Main Street, Farnhill.

SIR - As the former chairman of the Skipton Renaissance Team, I find that the proposals coming from Craven District Council bear no relation to the Vision to which I put my name.

Though I find this sad, my major concern is what I see as incoherence and unacceptably poor financial planning.

CDC's budget is some £6.5 million a year. Of this, some £2.5 million comes from council tax and £1 million from Skipton's car parks.

The loss of car park income could put up council tax by 40 per cent (£50).

At present a car park space for a commuter costs some £840 a year (discounted to £300 or £100 for permit holders). What will be the cost of a multi-storey car park space? We are not told.

Many commuters park free in areas like Middletown, which has now been zoned for residents' parking. Some 250 commuters are expected to be displaced from this area.

In such circumstances I would expect CDC to have produced some very thorough market research on the impact of the higher costs of multi-storey car parking and the most likely behaviour of people who currently park for nothing.

Will commuters pay over £1,000 a year to park, or will they just walk further, from the Regents estate for example? How can CDC guarantee to keep the £1 million car park income?

I saw lots of drawings in the Town Hall, but no evidence that this essential market research has been done.

If it has been, let us see it. If not, then CDC is being highly

irresponsible and risking its own services and our council tax - and I would expect the officials concerned to consider their future.

Mike Doyle,

Bright Street, Skipton.

SIR - Still all this talk about multi-storey car parks, flats, houses, council offices etc. Still no talk about a much needed bus station, of course.

Maybe as the councillors all have cars, they never really see our miserable, dirty bus station. I feel ashamed when visitors talk to me. It is worse now than in the 1950s.

Please go and look at Keighley's bus station, clean, under a roof. Bus timetables easy to look at, an information shop plus as a bonus as well - cheaper fares!

Surely we deserve a new bus station first before all these far-fetched ideas? Just something simple, not like the plans I saw at the meeting last year with the library being installed plus huge tubs of flowers blocking the way into the station. Also there only seemed to be one entrance!

As I said have a look at Keighley, it could be done here.

Anne Kay

Princes Drive, Skipton.

SIR - I write to you as a resident of Langcliffe to thank you for your fair and balanced reporting of our fight to save the school.

As you will know by now, there has been no stay of execution. We have now received the report to the executive members. It fails to present our case. I can find no evidence that our letters and submissions have been considered except to dismiss them.

I am particularly sad that an admirable letter from Trevor Wear, the principal of Settle College, which proposed a solution, seems to have been ignored.

At the public meeting which you reported, I also had the impression that although Mr Watson was consistently sympathetic and fair, the officials present were not interested in our case, only in submitting their own and when challenged they either reiterated or declined to reply.

A more forensic procedure would have been fairer to all sides. We could have presented our case and the officials theirs. Both sides would have been able to question the other's premises. The elective officials would not only have been set free to judge for themselves but we should have seen that they were free to do so.

At the moment the system is weighted in favour of the officials who are both a party in the dispute and the assessors of the evidence.

Langcliffe must fight on, and not only to save its unique and lovely school, the only parental choice small school in the Settle area, but also to prevent other schools in the country from having to suffer in the way that Langcliffe has had to suffer.

I rely on your continued fair reporting and ask your readers to support us in what is now a matter of more general importance.

Elizabeth Glover,

Langcliffe.

SIR - I have to admire County Councillor John Watson's strength of character in writing to your publication, after having recommended the closure of Langcliffe School and I do thank him for his kind comments concerning the way our dispute with him has been handled.

For dispute with him and the Cabinet-style governance of North Yorkshire County Council we do have, especially since currently there is no-one from the Craven area, with local knowledge, to represent us.

Mr Watson points out, quite correctly, that it does cost more at the moment to educate a child at Langcliffe School than at some other schools, but if there were more pupils at the school then this would no longer be the case as costs would drop remarkably.

Mr Watson points out, quite correctly, that the number of pupils are projected to fall still further in coming years, but projections can be wide of the mark and circumstances can change.

It is said that the North Craven Review and unchecked rumours have led to the fall in numbers, since it is reckoned that there are 28 children of first school age in the catchment area and what we seek is for North Yorkshire County Council to support us in our efforts to persuade these children to come to our school.

Then, in council jargon, we would be a "safe" school because we would have more than 23 pupils.

The new headteacher, who has done so much for the school, the new Friends of Langcliffe school, the new pre-school provision and the new activities at the school, reflect a school at the heart of a supportive community, which surely the council should be doing all in its power to help and promote and thereby assist Langcliffe in being a sustainable Dales community rather than apparently walking all over every sign of new life.

May I also thank the Craven Herald for all its support and coverage in this matter and remind people that it is not too late to let North Yorkshire County Council know of any objections to their plans.

The Rev Roger Wood.

Vicar of Langcliffe.

SIR - Further to recent letters and reports in the Craven Herald I find it very hard to accept that the whole of the community is prepared to accept people driving in excess of 70mph on Keighley Road in Cowling.

How absurd that a recent letter to the editor states that most of the accidents on this road are caused by the deterioration of the road: could it not be due to people overtaking on a relatively narrow road at speeds of over 60mph? I think this is more likely.

As more and more houses are built on Keighley Road, the more it becomes a built-up area thus necessitating a reduction in speed limits.

It seems to me that someone from a little hamlet two miles away from the main stretch of Keighley Road completely disagrees with the views of most of the locals in Cowling but then so would I if I didn't have to listen to boy racers and speeding motorbikes every night.

Furthermore, why is it when the local police are doing their speed checks they do them on sharp bends and in the middle of 30mph zones? Surely to gain results they should be doing them in the areas most affected, ie the 60mph zone. How many major accidents has there been in the last four years? Six or seven that I can remember.

One final thing, my husband travels on the Bingley bypass everyday of which 70 per cent is subject to a 50mph limit. This bypass is brand new with two lanes but is deemed to be safe at 50mph, so why is it that Keighley Road which is allegedly deteriorating is still a 60mph zone?

Mrs Marie Parkin,

Keighley Road,

Cowling

SIR - I have been looking through my collection of photographs of Skipton Band taken during the 70s and 80s and have found a few of the band leading the armistice parade up the High Street towards the cenotaph.

In fact, that period would be the last time we had a marching band led by our conductor, Ken Bright.

In those days, the Airedale branch of the Parachute Regiment were in the parade - a smart bunch of fit men, some of whom had dropped at Arnhem!

Anthony Davies and John Ellwood sounded the Last Post, then the band marched away and were led by a policeman on a BMW motorbike! The last time I saw that logo was on the engine nacelle of a Heinkell III - they still use the same badge on BMW cars - but, of course, we are friends now.

The band committee has done all it can to publicise the fact that we need new people to join. Anyone thinking of forming a bugle band should contact us and learn to play the cornet properly and try to emulate the band just described. We have plenty of quality instruments and excellent tuition.

The Royal British Legion does a splendid job and many of us lost friends and family in World War Two and must remember them. I served as a pilot from 1942 to 1946 and lost friends killed on the Rhine crossing and also in flying accidents.

For the last 10 years my wife Kath and I have marched with the Air Crew Association down Whitehall behind a Guards band - fantastic!

I own and fly a World War Two RAF training aircraft which I actually flew once in 1946. In fact, I flew it last Sunday to the Real Aeroplace Company based at Breighton, near Selby. It now stands next to a Hawker Hurricane, a Messerschmitt 109, a World War One Fokker Triplane replica and an RAF Miles Magister.

My wife Kathleen's cousin is Under Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans and even he can't provide us with a marching band. It is up to Skipton people and music teachers to join up and help our excellent committee to swell the Skipton Brass Band numbers.

JK Ellwood

President of Skipton Brass,

Tarn Moor Crescent, Skipton.

SIR - I have been so appalled by the amount of litter in the hedges and along the canal banks in Gargrave that, once again, I have been using one of the litter pickers that Craven Council has lent Gargrave WI.

This year I am particularly disgusted by the number of dog pooh bags left around the village.

Having taken the trouble to carry, use and tie a plastic bag, why on earth can't dog owners also take the trouble to deposit the bags in one of the dog waste bins in the village instead of hanging them in the bushes or along the canalside?

Olive Payne,

Marton Close, Gargrave.

SIR - I see the silly season for council tax rises is upon us once again, with Skipton Town Council taking a modest 26 per cent increase!

Still who could doubt the wise words of Coun Polly English? No, not her statement concerning this shamefully huge increase. Any comment such as "this time we have decided to put our money where our mouths are" could not be described as wise, coming from one who doesn't even recognise the difference between her money and ours.

But the words she is reported as saying on January 17 are indeed sensible: "If the public don't like it, they can always vote us out."

Wise words indeed, Coun English, and we hope everyone remembers them. Crag certainly will, and will try to help others remember where you stand on such issues when you are up for election - anything to help!

Alan Perrow

Chairman, Craven Ratepayers'

Action Group

Bannister Walk, Cowling.

SIR - I indicated in the consultation document on traffic calming measures for Salisbury Street that I would be in favour of a 20mph speed limit, to increase safety for children, but I specifically objected to the proposal to install speed bumps or cushions, stating as my reasons that they cause damage to cars and increase pollution.

So there are at least three objections. It would seem that someone has some explaining to do.

Rev H Ewing,

Gargrave Road, Skipton.

SIR - A majority of Barnoldswick Town Council members, at a full council meeting on February 1, voted on a decision to expand on the accommodation they currently occupy. The decision was taken on the basis of what they believed was the best option for our town council - its members, staff and the public.

Members considered all available information in reaching their decision. Its present office accommodation (with an additional meeting room), on terms and conditions offered by its present landlord, represented a far superior option than re-locating to Rainhall Road - from a commercial, physical and logistical standpoint.

The Old Library provides the town council with premises which have ease of access for the public (most especially the disabled), additional room for expansion and growth and a clear, distinct civic profile.

The £24,000 matching grant, as mentioned in last week's press, is not available at this point in time. The town council could reapply for this grant in the next financial year (2007-2008). This grant can only be used for renovation or refurbishment of property owned or leased by Barnoldswick Town Council and is not available to cover rents.

Responsibility for the wider community, including especially the West Craven area, rests with Pendle Borough Council and its West Craven Area Committee. Barnoldswick Town Council has, however, recognised that it has an interest in those wider initiatives which impact directly on the local town. It has therefore actively supported West Craven Together since its inception in many forms including a significant annual grant of £5,000. No other town or parish council within the WCT initative provides such financial support.

Marlene Hill-Crane,

Chairman,

Barnoldswick Town Council.

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