Holiday ruined by presence of travellers

Staying with a relative whose house overlooks the beck and is, in fact, very close to the field and beck, I had a bird’s eye view of events there and have to say that my holiday was ruined by the stress caused by the noise and visual impact due to the presence and behaviour of the travellers. To elaborate on the former – we were subjected to the noise of generators running until the early hours of the morning, of dogs barking frequently, shouting, vehicles arriving and departing at all hours and horses running on the main road late at night. The worst aspect of all to me, however, was the fact that the area bordering the beck was littered with the evidence of their having used it as an open-air public toilet and, as if that were not bad enough, we were almost afraid to look out of the windows since they were not shy about performing in public! On one occasion I witnessed boys throwing stones at the windows.

To add insult to injury, local householders received letters requesting them not to throw rubbish in the beck!

Incidentally, this is not a new problem for I encountered a similar situation last year. Various officials were approached by the people affected by all of this, the response varied; the council liaison was most helpful and approachable, others, including the local councillor, were less so. My next visit will be in August, I can hardly wait to see the “sturdy knee-high fence”.

EM Hardie Isle of Lewis

Gateway to knowledge

In the past Ilkley has been first for many things, when far-sighted residents realised there was more to, to quote a 19th century doctor, “a mucky little hole with a beck running down the middle”. I wonder how many playing the nimby (not in my back yard) card, remember the secondary school on Valley Drive, or thought of residents beside the former Wells House campus and the estate built thereon. Many fought against it but had to put up with it. Also estates and developments in Ilkley over the past 30 years, many with families who needed schooling.

When Scalebor Park closed, it left an ideal site for a large school, complete with sports fields, theatre/assembly hall, gymnasium, craft rooms and many things a thriving school required. Residents and parish councillors have been campaigning long and hard for the replacement of Coronation Hospital. If the grammar school found a new site, there would be even more room for a hospital for Ilkley in the 21st century and beyond. The present grammar school is approaching, if not there already, bursting point. Leeds built a superb new grammar school in a rural setting, which does much to complement the area. Why not Ilkley? Why not a grammar school to compliment the 21st century? There is room on the proposed site for playing fields with transport nearby. Hopefully, too, a school canteen of such proportion that students will not fill nearby shops. Not forgetting a swimming pool. A less constrained building would go a long way to opening young minds to the world around.

Instead of nimby, perchance Ilkley Grammar School – The Gateway to Knowledge and The Dales.

FRAZER IRWIN Queens Road Ilkley

Speedwatch a laughing stock?

I’m sure many Addingham residents, of which I am one, are sick and tired of vehicles speeding through the village ignoring speed restriction signs. Catching people that transgress is, of course, a deterrent but please let us get real. The Gazette (May 28) reports that two pedal cyclists were caught doing 22mph in a 20mph zone. Obviously, exceeding the speed limit by any margin is not excusable but with dozens of cars, vans and motorbikes ‘breaking the law’ on a daily basis then catching two pedal cyclists for a 2mph infringement makes the Speedwatch scheme a laughing stock.

The recently installed flashing speed limit signs in Addingham may remind some drivers to slow down but the village needs to seriously revisit its traffic management. Time, perhaps to restrict and/or re-direct vehicles away from the Main Street which is a virtual ‘rat run’ for the A59 Tony Dexter The Green, Addingham

Thief strikes at the Lido

The Friends of Ilkley Lido are to be congratulated for the work they continue to do to improve this great asset to the town.

May I, however, deliver a warning to parents? On Sunday, my grandson, aged 13, went to the kiosk and had a £10 note snatched from him by a much older teenager. Thankfully, my grandson was unhurt, and wisely did not respond to the thief's taunt: “If you want it back , come on, just try.”

This kind of bullying and thieving from youngsters is reported almost daily in your sister paper, Bradford’s Telegraph & Argus. I wouldn't like to think that the Lido might become a magnet for this kind of behaviour.

The police will be informed, of course. Our children must be free to enjoy the Lido without worrying about thieves and threats of violence.

Robert Hughes St Mary’s Close Ilkley

Fed-up with LBA

I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that no further expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport should be allowed to take place and the letter from Chris Short (Letters, May 28) sums up the incredible sense of frustration and anger among the majority of passengers who use this airport and are staggered by its continued bad management.

Under previous council ownership, the airport was pretty useless in terms of a customer experience but since privatisation it has, remarkably, got even worse. Like the city’s football team, they are not very good and an embarassment to us all.

Recently I returned on a flight from abroad which landed at 1am. The flight was full of British nationals, couples and families with children, and there was no other incoming flight. On landing at Leeds Bradford, it took an age for the ground staff to wake up and get off their backsides to get the steps up to the aircraft before we could disembark. But that was only the start of our ordeal. After walking through the heavy rain we finally got near to passport control and a queue of 200 people from this one flight. There was one over-zealous jobsworth passport officer and two police community support officers who were marching up and down the queue of passengers pretending to be the real deal and presumably dreaming of being in the anti-terror section. We were looked upon like we were aliens that had landed from another planet and, in other words, treated like second-class citizens because that’s exactly what you are, especially when you land at Leeds Bradford Airport at any time of day.

An hour to get through passport control is completely unacceptable. Why is it that at any other airport in the UK, like Manchester or Newcastle, or at any other airport in Europe, travellers pass through the system quickly and with ease but at Leeds Bradford it is an absoloute joke from beginning to end.

They don’t want you to drop off anyone at the airport because it’s too much aggro for them to build a big enough car park and, listen to this, any taxi driver doing his job who drops off a passenger is banned from returning within half-an-hour without a financial penalty, and therefore blocked from doing his job which is to provide a public service and ease traffic congestion on the access roads. The airport makes providing a first-class public service impossible. The airport then forces inbound passengers to use an in-house taxi firm whose cabs are at least 25 per cent more expensive. Yes, from leaving to arriving, Leeds Bradford Airport is without any doubt the worst run airport in the entire UK. The devil is in the detail and it’s not heaven, but hell.

When are Leeds Bradford Airport going to start listening to the thousands and thousands of fed-up passengers and consumers who demand an efficient and pleasurable travel experience from their local airport? Or should we do what one senior insider told me last week and “just go to Manchester instead” and avoid the chaos. Jet2.com is Leeds Bradford Airport these days – let them run it and it might finally get off the ground.

Dan Cooney Church Lane, Esholt

Lessons to learn

Chris Short (Letters, May 28) is right in his criticism of the car parking and drop-off arrangements at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Most people accept that the airport must raise revenue from car parking and other activities but this should not be done in such a way as to make people annoyed and frustrated.

Jet2 also has some lessons to learn in this respect. During its online booking process its advertised fares quickly escalate with unspecified “taxes and charges” to a much higher figure, including a large extra fee for the privilege of paying for the ticket, even using a debit card.

Expensive extras are also automatically added to the ticket price and have to be deleted, sometimes with difficulty, if unwanted.

Even if the final cost of the ticket is attractive, this pricing and buying process leaves the customer feeling manipulated and disgruntled.

Both Leeds Bradford Airport and Jet2 have an attractive offer. They do not need to use clumsy and annoying tactics to extract money from their customers.

Peter Carey Leeds Road, Otley

A new low for Brown

As an ex-soldier, but no doubt in common with a great many other local residents across Keighley and Ilkley, I am appalled at Gordon Brown’s apparently willing failure to secure an invitation for Her Majesty The Queen to Saturday's D-Day 65th Anniversary commemorations in France – in case she over-shadows his own regal presence.

The Queen has no official engagements on Saturday and Buckingham Palace has made clear it would have accepted an invitation had one been forthcoming.

Speaking last weekend, Mr Brown defended the situation saying that the event was intended “for prime ministers and presidents”.

It must therefore have escaped his attention that presidents, like kings and queens, are heads of state, meaning Her Majesty should certainly be there. But that, of course, would mean the Queen standing alongside Presidents Obama and Sarkozy rather than the Prime Minister himself.

Gordon Brown's premiership has long since defended into farce but this, in my view, takes it to an entirely new low. Let’s hope both veterans and the media can shame the Prime Minister into yet another characteristic U-turn.

Kris Hopkins Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Keighley & Ilkley Churchill House North Street Keighley EDITOR’S NOTE: HRH Prince Charles is now expected to attend the commemorations, at the invitation of the French government.

Ilkley Library is a little gem

I like Ilkley Library as it is. On my almost weekly visits to the town I always call in and use the facilities. Compared with other Bradford libraries that I use – where local young people seem to use the place to noisily hang about, to misbehave and at times be quite cheeky to staff and other users, a kind of youth facility – Ilkley is a place of peace and quiet, helpful and interested staff (as all library staff are), a place where you can even nod off for a minute or two. You can almost feel that the old ‘no talking’ rule still applies.

A few repairs, a lick of paint, a new carpet, some blinds to the window facing the station, a public toilet perhaps, would do wonders. So, to me, modernisers don’t create a modern everything-goes facility complete with piped music. Don’t spoil the quaintness and ambience, it’s a little gem.

RJ Lacey Wrose Road Bradford