Letters to the Editor (From Ilkley Gazette)

Letters to the Editor

2:50pm Friday 6th July 2012 in Letters

Seeing red over derelict phone box in the street

Your editorial this week summed up the happiness many of us have enjoyed as a result of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, followed by the Olympic Torch processions.

People were at their best as they either organised community events or turned out and stood for hours enjoying so much of what is best about Britain.

Some of the ideas being put forward for community enhancements are too expensive and symptomatic of the recent years when councils, museums, art galleries and health service thought nothing of spending absurd sums without doing their homework.

I would like to propose a small, inexpensive improvement to the town of Ilkley to celebrate the Jubilee year.

One of the draws for tourists in Ilkley due to rugby, cricket, the lido, the riverside and Middleton Woods, is Denton Road.

We currently have the most obnoxious remains of an old telephone kiosk there which is a health and safety hazard of the highest order. We can stop children playing conkers but the same legislators are content to have unusable, offensive, dangerous intrusions on our street scene.

Can we encourage our council to improve this area for tourists and residents alike?

Barbara Cussons, Curly Hill, Ilkley

Carrying Torch was the experience of a lifetime

In response to your editorial in last week’s paper I would like to express the great joy I felt as I carried the Torch along Leeds Road.

The atmosphere was wonderful and that was because there were so many families and groups of friends out enjoying the event together. The community spirit was very evident and it would be exciting to capture that again in other community events.

I was privileged to carry the Torch but I felt it was on behalf of the many people in our society who give a great deal of time in making a difference to others lives. I cannot describe adequately the feelings I had as I walked along Leeds Road but it certainly was the experience of a lifetime.

Thank you Ilkley and district people for making the occasion a magnificent one!

Margaret Cook, Ilkley

Very Fond memories of three years in Ilkley

I am writing to you from Australia and will be visiting Ilkley soon.

My family and I came to Ilkley from Australia in the early 1960s and lived in your beautiful town for three years. I still regard this as one of the loveliest periods of my life.

Having lived in an arid country most of my life, I recall with such fondness the town of Ilkley itself, the woods on the far side of the swimming pool, the moors and the Tarn in winter on which we skated (in our boots).

“How Green Was My Valley” – it inspires such feelings in me still. Do the children still go from house to house singing carols at Christmas or ask for a “penny for the Guy” on November 5 as we did?

I am enclosing a photo which was published in your paper around 1963. It is of myself (second from right) and some of my school friends. We were holding a jumble sale for the RSPCA. From left to right, they are: Wendy’s sister, Wendy Cunliffe, Rosemary Virgo, myself, known then as Glynis Hanna, and my good friend Deborah Virgo.

Barbara Virgo, Deborah and Rosemary’s mother, worked in the office of the Gazette at that time.

I remember coming into the office with Deborah and seeing her smiling face from time to time.

My other great friend at that time was James Bingham. We were both devoted Beatles fans.

My son Jack and I will be staying at Craiglands Hotel (01943) 430001 on Cowpasture Road on July 10 and 11 and would be very glad to hear from any of my old friends who may be interested to meet again after all these years.

Glynis Madeleine Edwards (Hanna), Shadforth Street, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia

‘Kindness of NHS staff was just unbelievable’

I have had three major operations in the last two years at Airedale Hospital Silsden and I want to say a big thank-you to the doctors and praise the kindness of the nurses which has been unbelievable.

Also thanks to my own doctors at the surgery in Burley-in-Wharfedale who have always been there for me. I think we are so lucky in West Yorkshire with the NHS.

Kay Bailey

Talk of leaving the EU sends out wrong signal

Talking about an EU referendum now is the wrong thing ,at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.

This is no time to talk about leaving the EU. Instead we should be working with our EU partners to develop policies that will allow the UK and the EU economy to regain its ability to create growth and jobs.

Talking about leaving the EU sends the wrong signal to investors and Britain’s global partners. It also weakens Britain’s ability to influence the future decisions the EU will take.

The EU is the world’s biggest market, a global player able to negotiate on behalf of its members trade deals with developing countries that put millions into EU funds.

The UK has already benefited substantially from EU Free Trade agreements. The recently signed free trade deal with South Korea is expected to save the UK economy about £500 million per annum.

Other deals currently being negotiated with Canada, India and Singapore could add up to £ 75 billion to EU countries’ funds.

Politicians should stop playing politics with something as important as the UK’s membership of the EU. Instead they should sit down and agree about the benefits of being in the EU and work together to make the most of it for the UK.

David Bowe Silverdale Mount, Guiseley

Questioning the logic of livestock movements

Figures recently published in the Farmers’ Weekly (June 29) reveal the UK exported 102,000 tonnes of sheepmeat in 2011, which included 72,491 live sheep.

It is bad enough these animals were forced to endure the stress and agony of being crammed into the back of trucks without food or water for the long trip to the Continent, but what is all the more shocking is that exactly the same amount of sheepmeat, 102,000 tonnes, was imported to the UK that same year.

Why are we forcing British sheep to endure the suffering of live export to Europe when we are bringing the exact same amount of sheepmeat into this country from abroad?

Ben Martin, Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent

Top Gear presenter’s call to spread the word

I would like to invite your readers to help me raise awareness of an important new information website for parents which is very close to my heart.

The Brain Injury Hub (braininjuryhub.co.uk) provides information and support to the parents and other family members of children who have suffered a brain injury. It’s been developed by the national charity the Children’s Trust, Tadworth.

My own experience of brain injury has been widely reported, but of course children can suffer brain injuries too – the causes include road accidents, falls, brain tumours and meningitis. A brain injury can leave a child with lifelong challenges, both physical and mental, and their parents will desperately need support.

That hasn’t been widely available before, but now the Brain Injury Hub will be a vital resource for thousands of UK families.

As a vice-president of the Children’s Trust, I have already seen the amazing work the charity does at its national rehabilitation centre.

The Brain Injury Hub combines this clinical expertise with contributions from parents sharing their own stories and a forum where parents can talk about their own experiences.

Perhaps you know the parent of a child with a brain injury, maybe among your family or friends or at your child’s school. If you do, please tell them about the Brain Injury Hub.

Richard Hammond, Television presenter, On behalf of The Children’s Trust, Tadworth