Burley representatives should hang their heads in shame

We are told that the district councillors are remunerated for performing their duties and for attending meetings, etc, and, although I can find no amounts published for this, they are no doubt well paid.

I understand that one councillor is also the chairman of Metro and is probably suitably remunerated for attending their meetings. A great pity then that the station platform and footbridge in Burley has not been gritted. This, of course, may be due to health and safety requirements! What about the health and safety of the people who travel by train and therefore help to pay the remuneration of Councillor Greaves?

It is appreciated that main roads have been gritted but in order to get to these you have to negotiate icy roads and pavements and, as a result, many painful falls have been incurred.

Is it not time that suitable grit bins were placed on the estates in the district and then residents could do their own gritting and then the councillors could rest in their beds!

The cost of these could be met by paying the councillors less and saving the cost of numerous news sheets in which both district and parish councillors blow their own trumpets and which add to the mountain of recycled paper each time.

I am young enough to remember the winters of 1947 and 1962 and I cannot recall that schools, commerce and industry ground to a half in those days!

My late grandfather served for many years in the 1920s and 1930s as a councillor on the Monmouthshire County Council and I doubt whether he ever got remunerated for his service!

Is 2010 an election year for the district and parish as well as general? If so it will be interesting to see if the electors responded to the obvious lack of interest shown by the present incumbents when the results are known!

Our local MPs have also been quiet during the recent inclement weather. Are they sunning themselves somewhere on their expenses?

John Harrison

Pasture Fold, Burley-in-Wharfedale

Labour’s vow to cut the deficit in four years

Yorkshire shoppers must know something Chris Hume of Skipton doesn’t! (Gazette Letters, January 14) Yorkshire households made up their minds that their prospects are much better than they thought and went shopping in droves over the Christmas period. This week housebuilder Taylor Wimpey announced it had started the year in good shape after reporting a 62 per cent rise in sale reservations on a year earlier.

The Conservative claim that Britain is in decline is simply not true. That is not to deny the budget deficit or to shirk from the responsibility of addressing it. But the fact remains that in 12 years, our country is still wealthier by more than half as much again than in 1997,and supports more than three million more jobs. We now have to address the deficit by a series of measures that will enable us to manage our recovery without choking off the very things that will aid recovery. We need to make savings – but we also need to remember that Government spending creates jobs and keeps tax revenues flowing.

We should be firmer with the banks both on the levy on Bank bonuses and on their support through lending to small and medium-sized businesses. Tax evasion costs the UK on average £35 billion a year so we must do more to address tax loopholes and make sure that everyone pays their fair share. And we must put an end to casino-style banking with a separation between high street banking and investment banking.

Our economic outlook is still fragile but it is widely expected that next week’s Office of National Statistics report will show our recovery from the worldwide crisis. It’s what we do next that is critical.

The Tory answer of rushing into massive expenditure cuts threatens to precipitate a deeper recession. Labour will take the tough choices to halve the deficit in four years – it won’t be painless but it won’t be reckless either. And Labour won’t be making cuts on the one hand whilst managing to find money to give to the wealthiest through inheritance tax reforms.

Jane Thomas

Labour Candidate for Keighley & Ilkley

Food labelling campaign launched by MEPs

I am writing to let you know of a campaign that Conservative MEPs are getting involved in. It relates to one the most fundamental decisions we make every day: what food we eat.

In these tough economic times local businesses and farmers need our support. Shop local has become more than just a buzzword, it now relates to the very survival of our local shops and businesses. This is nothing to do with nanny-statism that has been the hallmark of the current Labour government where they try and tell you what to do, how you should do it and what you should be buying, but about being able to make an informed choice when you are doing your shopping.

We want to see clearer labelling of food.

Currently under existing legislation you can buy, for example, a chicken sandwich and it may say produced in the UK on it. What many readers may not know is that as long as the meat is put between two pieces of bread in the UK it can be called produced in the UK, even if the chicken is from Thailand.

This to us is not acceptable and misleading. Many people think they are buying British when, in fact, they are buying anything but. Food such as beef and fish when bought on its own is fine and properly labelled. But most of the processed food we all enjoy every day is not.

We are campaigning to have existing legislation changed to reflect the choice and clarity that consumers expect. We want people to know that if it says produced in Britain on the label, the central ingredient is at least of British origin. I would ask people to support us.

Timothy Kirkhope

MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber

Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament

Readers urged to put forward favourite Lottery projects

We are calling on the people of Wharfedale to nominate their favourite Lottery-funded projects for The National Lottery Awards 2010.

The awards are the annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects and recognise the dedication of the people behind them. Every week Lottery players raise £25 million for projects all across the UK, making a difference to people, places and communities. We want to hear from your readers about any Lottery-funded projects that have had a positive impact on the local area, made a real difference to people’s lives or anyone who is personally involved in transforming their community with the help of Lottery funding.

The awards have seven categories, each reflecting the main areas of Lottery funding: arts, sport, heritage, health, environment, education, voluntary and charity projects.

The projects that make it to the finals of The National Lottery Awards will appear on a star-studded prime-time BBC1 TV show later this year. They will also have a chance to win a £2,000 cash prize.

So if you want to see a local winner, visit lotterygoodcauses.org.uk to find out more. Entries must be received by 5pm on Friday, February 12.

Lisa Quinn

The National Lottery

Time to Be Loud Be Clear about bowel cancer danger

Too many people are needlessly dying from bowel cancer. It is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, yet over 90 per cent of cases could be treated successfully if diagnosed early. That’s where screening comes in; if you are aged 60-69 you are eligible for the NHS bowel cancer screening and will receive a kit every two years to complete and return by post.

Next week (January 25-31) is Be Loud Be Clear, Beating Bowel Cancer’s annual campaigning week which raises awareness of bowel cancer. For 2010 the charity is urging everyone eligible to participate in screening. In addition Beating Bowel Cancer is calling for an extension of the screening programme to include everyone aged 50-74 so that more people at risk of bowel cancer have the opportunity to be screened and beat the disease.

My grandfather died of bowel cancer and my mother is currently fighting the disease so I know only too well how important it is to ‘be loud’ about bowel cancer. For more information about Be Loud Be Clear, including fun ways you can get involved, please visit beatingbowelcancer.org.

Matt Dawson MBE

Patron of Beating Bowel Cancer

Animal Aid wants readers to ‘kick the meat habit’

Last week, Animal Aid exposed in the national media abject cruelties and possible illegal activity in yet another UK slaughterhouse, this time a Soil Association-approved abattoir that should be the ‘gold standard’ in the industry.

Things at this abattoir were so bad that we had to interrupt our investigation to report the abuses to the Meat Hygiene Service. They immediately suspended three workers and began building a case for a prosecution.

We filmed pigs being punched, kicked, slapped and hit with tongs; sheep forcibly thrown into the stun room; animals being ‘stunned’ across the body, a procedure which doesn’t so much stun them as give them a massive and painful electric shock; and sheep being decapitated before they were dead.

This is the third sheep and pig abattoir that we have filmed in recent months, and it is the third that has shown serious animal welfare problems. It strengthens the view that slaughter can never be anything other than a horrific, terrifying ordeal. I would urge people to watch our footage online (animalaid.org.uk) and then kick the meat habit for good.

Kate Fowler

Head of Campaigns, Animal Aid

Chocolate covering to Kraft takeover of Cadbury

The takeover of Cadbury by Kraft Foods had much to recommend it to shareholders.

The Quaker traditions of Cadbury have heretofore seen an undue priority given to the welfare of workers instead of to shareholders' interests. Kraft Foods will hopefully bring the enterprise's management into the 21st Century and secure a hardnosed maximisation of profit.

John Eoin Douglas

Spey Terrace, Edinburgh