I am amazed that you devoted so much space in last week’s Gazette (Ticketed driver Naomi says signs ‘unclear’, page 5) to someone who has clearly broken the law but seems to think that failing to read the quite obvious sign nearby is sufficient excuse to avoid being punished.

One wonders what other road signs she will fail to notice while driving her car! If, as Naomi’s mother asserts, the sign is impossible to see, how did your photographer manage to make it so visible in the photograph?

I do, however, entirely agree that the £35 fine was not fair – it really should have been more like £100, with points on her licence and, ideally, confiscation of her car.

I write as a disabled driver who frequently cannot find a vacant ‘disabled’ space as most of the four roadside spaces in Ilkley are regularly occupied by thoughtless and/or selfish able-bodied drivers. I could write a book listing the excuses given by these people when challenged as to why they feel entitled to use these spaces, but that’s another story!

J M Johnson

Skipton Road, Ilkley

Non-disabled drivers should think twice

With reference to last week’s article about the disabled parking area at the bottom of Old Station Way, Addingham. Many years ago a disabled parking area was suggested by the late local historian Kate Mason to the annual village meeting of Addingham Parish Council. This has proved very successful, however in more recent years, this facility has been abused. Non-disabled people should think twice before parking, some day they might need the facilities of a disabled parking bay!

Incidentally I was a parish councillor for over nine years, and worked in the village for over ten years and therefore came in contact with many people.

Barbara M Haigh

Welcome walkers, but be polite and don’t forget the locals!

In post-student days I took part in numerous long distance walks, notably the Lyke Wake, four times, Scarboro to Tadcaster John F Kennedy road walk, forerunners of the Cleveland and Coastal Walks, coast to coast and a good few others. Therefore, it was somewhat annoying to be accused by a member of Ilkley’s Welcome to Walkers team that I didn’t like walkers.

If Ilkley really are to welcome walkers then we, the council and highways authority, must make walking routes safe. Much like the bund stopping travellers using a centuries old pitch, Denton Road’s north verge is very overgrown, thus stopping safe use by equestrians and walkers alike, local or visiting, on a very fast section of road. Perhaps Welcome to Walkers could have the Hebers Ghyll paths made safe to all. The less able walkers find those bridges and steps very difficult. I do question the need to upgrade a distant footpath while a route in near constant use is long overdue full repair – that from Henshaw’s Pond to White Wells.

In my days of long distance walking it was standard practice to carry loose change, realising out of the way places did not have banks. Today the habit of giving a £10 or £20 note for a 50p or 75p mug of tea is a habit common to many modern walkers. I remember one Dales teashop owner demanding payment before service, hospitality and friendship having left with the last walking party. In my walking days one of the group would become treasurer and pay for everything along the route, having been topped up with a float before we set off. Perhaps today’s walking groups could do the same.

While welcoming walkers to Ilkley and surrounding countryside, we must be vigilant of the damage a sudden influx of tramping feet can, and often does, cause to a sensitive area. In the 1960s the Lyke Wake route was often hard to find. Having a native monastic undertaker in the group made life easier. That same route is like a pedestrian motorway today. One notable Lake District route eroded to became a gully six feet deep and as much wide, through endless tramping feet. By all means welcome walkers but don’t forget those who live here, pay council taxes for countryside upkeep and make their living from pedestrian visitors.

Lastly while welcoming walkers, would they also show civility to our residents, in this far from perfect world? As a former long distance walker I do wonder at the manners shown by some of those we are so eager to welcome.

Frazer Irwin

Queens Road, Ilkley

Site could accommodate sixth form college

Now that Tesco has been refused planning permission to put a huge supermarket on the former Spooner Industries site, why can’t it be redeveloped as a sixth form college for Ilkley Grammar School? It is a very short walk from the existing Ilkley Grammar School buildings. It could be purchased using the proceeds of sale of the sites of Ilkley Middle School and All Saints Primary School. This way the green belt could be preserved, the vast sums already spent on extending the existing Ilkley Grammar School site would not be wasted and there would be no need to rely so much on the excessively expensive private finance initiative.

And if there is any money left over for Bradford Education, the primary school at which my wife teaches in central Bradford could benefit from purchasing a nearby plot of land for a playing field. There’s not a blade of grass in the main school.

Andy Hosking

Wheatley Lane, Ben Rhydding

Bradford Council has done it again!

Bradford Council’s committee that decides Ilkley’s policy has again postponed considering whether parishioners should be allowed equal votes or not. As it is, some people have three votes and others four. Our largest ward is 80 per cent bigger than the smallest, which is absurd.

Moreover, that inequality was arranged unlawfully in a secret meeting of councillors in 2004. Quite why or how anyone thought that could be kept a dark secret is beyond imagination. It’s so naïve.

To re-cap: in July last year (2008) my wife and I began collecting Ilkley petitions from more than one-in-ten of local electors. All of us seek equal votes in Ilkley’s elections so that British democracy can prevail in our town. Our petitions asked for a system of equal votes to be provided ‘within six months’ or, at any rate in place for the next election.

1,346 petitions were presented and accepted over a year ago, on September 8. There’s since been a series of inconclusive meetings that simply cost money. But to obfuscate Ilkley people’s rights, anything goes with our local councillors. To save further time and money, a group of Ilkley people put forward a detailed plan in January that meets British standards. Copies were widely published and alternatives sought: nothing new has been proposed. Meetings called by councillors in November, March and April searched for reasons for delay – and invented them. Those inventions are remarkably creative and might feature at our literary festival one day. As farce.

Your readers in Burley may recall the prolonged delays and excuses that obstructed their wish to have their own parish council. It’s the same crew that’s delaying our rights in Ilkley. Procrastination didn’t stop Burley and Menston having their own councils, and it’s unlikely to stop equal votes in Ilkley.

The next Bradford meeting to consider Ilkley people’s petitions is scheduled for October 22. That’s 13 months since the Ilkley petition was presented. Will our wishes be respected in time for the May election next year? Watch this space!

Andrew Dundas

Parish Ghyll Drive, Ilkley

Why are travellers’ lifestyle choices at my expense?

Over the past few years and recently within the Ilkley Gazette (September 17), there has been the issue of the travellers. They present a problem, in as much they camp illegally, and then have to be moved on at someone else’s expense, invariably leaving a trail of minor or major destruction of some sort.

Many a time, the argument is put forward, ‘Where else could they go?’ There have been sites specially designated for them, but it seems they are too few, and the latest I read from a site in the Leeds area, was the site they occupied had been trashed. Who will pick up this expense?

I have no problem if they wish to live an unsettled life, always on the road, it is their preferred choice. All I want to know, is when their living problems became mine and at my expense?

A G Goldsbrough

Fieldway, Ilkley

Lack of loos causes a wee spot of bother

Do the people of Ilkley think we deserve at least one more public toilet? The lack of public toilets in the town is a source of frustration to visitors and locals.

To put the issue in perspective, a generation ago we had at least five, open most of the day. Today there is only one. Our research has shown that there is an urgent need for public toilet facilities sites in the vicinity of the bus and train terminal.

Ilkley is a thriving tourist town and should be able to provide basic needs for all, especially the elderly and children.

Pat Booth

On behalf of Soroptimist International of Ilkley

Choir thanks readers for response to piano appeal

Following a recent article in the Ilkley Gazette talking of the need of our Burley Probus Male Voice Choir for a piano, I felt I must write to say a big thank you to all the wonderful readers who responded so readily.

It was heart-warming to find so many people willing to help. In the event, a piano was given by a past member our choir, for the use of the people of Burley but to be situated in Burley Grange.

The choir was overjoyed at the response and now need more singers to gain full use of the piano.

Ken Bellwood

Choir Chairman