Letters to the Editor (From Ilkley Gazette)

Letters to the Editor

3:55pm Thursday 2nd August 2012 in Letters

Awards meeting was conducted ‘courteously’

Some clarification should be made of the comments in Mrs Hawkesworth’s and Mrs Bailey’s letters of July 26, 2012.

Under recent changes to the awards process, Ilkley Parish Council asks that all applicants should attend a meeting of the awards committee in order to provide information on their funding request and to answer any queries from councillors.

This is generally good practice, enabling councillors to make well-informed decisions and ensuring the council is accountable for all money awarded under its statutory powers. Since 2003, the council has awarded over £45,000 to the summer festival. The discussions at the awards meeting were amicable, all questions from members were covered and the applicant was treated with courtesy.

Ilkley Parish Council raised an additional £7,500 this financial year to cover the expenses of holding a jubilee street party and to provide small grants to organisations and groups wishing to hold jubilee-themed events. The accounts of the council for 2012-13 will be made available for public inspection in June/July next year, as is the case with all parish and town councils in England.

Councillors took the view that the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee covered the period from February onwards, and intended to celebrate it with a number of set-piece events.

For the Street Party on June 3, the council provided brass band entertainment, a tea tent, as well as bunting along The Grove and tables and chairs for residents to use for their picnics. Despite the rain, several hundred local people turned up to celebrate the occasion and made it a successful, happy event.

Councillors do not receive payment for the work they carry out on behalf of the community and all of them approach their duties professionally and bring considerable experience, either from local government or other walks of life, to their council activities.

Some members have served for many years on the council, building up a wealth of knowledge and experience of making decisions on many issues and topics.

Many hold professional or high academic qualifications.

Both the deputy clerk and I have worked for many years in different tiers of local government and have undertaken much training in our respective fields.

Alan Draper Clerk to Ilkley Parish Council An ‘imperative need for total transparency’ With reference to the concerns expressed last week by Councillor Mike Ridgway regarding the Ilkley Summer Festival Limited, following a recent request to Ilkley Parish Council for funding from the council tax payers of Ilkley.

A number of questions need answering: Why has a private company been allowed to use the town hall, Ilkley, as its registered office, are there any other private companies being allowed to use a local public building as their registered offices, and has this ever caused problems when penalties have been suggested or imposed by Companies House?

Is it true that some of the directors of the Ilkley Summer Festival live abroad, if so, what is their input to the company, and why do they remain directors?

How many Bradford Metropolitan Councillors are directors, and have their interests always been declared at Council meetings when financial support, for the Ilkley Summer Festival Limited has been discussed. We wish the festival continued success, but the need is imperative for total transparency when local parish council funding, public money, is being used to support a private company however plausible their intentions.

Geoffrey A Maldwyn-Jones , Far View House, Hillside Close, Addingham

Criticism of festival should be in private

I would like to whole heartedly applaud and support Miggy Bailey and all the other hard working volunteers who keep Ilkley alive. The summer festival is an amazing series of events that bring joy to thousands throughout the potentially flat holiday season of August. Criticism of their methods (if needed at all) should take place in private and it is unprofessional of Mike Ridgway to make it public.

I would also like to know how Ilkley spent the £20,000 jubilee money. Shopkeepers and individuals made a real effort, but where was the glorious riot of Union Jacks? Otley had a splendid display and I felt gladdened to see it – Ilkley should have been as magnificent.

Charlotte Sayer, Wheatley Road, Ilkley

‘We’ll ensure developers stick to plan conditions’

I am writing to you to keep residents informed of actions taken to enforce planning conditions as new houses are built on the Moon’s Field site on Netherfield Road.

I have been approached by a number of people living close to the site complaining about the noise from the site from 7.30am, when a condition of the planning permission was that work would not begin on-site until 8am. Obviously, I don’t condone behaviour like this, as it really intrudes on people’s lives.

The matter was referred to the enforcement department who visited the site and issued the developer, Redrow Homes, with a breach of conditions notice which reminds them of their obligations.

I am delighted to report the action taken seems to have done the trick – Redrow seem to be complying with the planning conditions – so much so I have been thanked by a resident who can now have their breakfast in peace.

I and my fellow ward councillors will continue to fight against unwelcome developments such as this, which was allowed on appeal by the Government’s planning inspector following initial refusal by the council, and will do our utmost to ensure if they do get the go-ahead, developers adhere strictly to conditions imposed on them to ensure the disruption suffered by local people is as minimal as possible.

Councillor Paul Wadsworth, Guiseley & Rawdon Ward

Voice your objections to church development

Again (Gazette, July 26) we are faced with planning proposals for Ilkley Cemetery South Chapel (pictured on facing page) that show a disgraceful lack of respect for the memory of our family buried nearby and for the funerals that regularly take place nearby.

It was 2006 when 187 of us expressed our offence at proposals for the commercialisation of the chapels and the centre of the cemetery. By that expression of offence, the law gives us the right to have that use stopped. A circuit judge, the diocesan chancellor, confirmed that right in February 2011. But the Council still seeks to brush us off. Now we have another opportunity to save the cemetery as a place of peace and respect for our dead.

Let us take it. If enough of us object to the present proposals, our objections will have to be considered by a panel. If not; the proposals could be rubber-stamped by a single person. Since 2006, I have kept pressing the Council to obey the law. Now we have the chance of pushing them on that in public. If you are upset by these proposals to turn the cemetery centre into a business area – please object to them, and do so before August 16. Don’t be put off by any defeatist talk. Object. Just say what you feel about the whole idea of the Council allowing the use of the cemetery for business.

Email your objections to planning.applications@bradford.gov.uk and make sure to quote Application Number 12/02552/FUL. If you write by letter, quote the number, and write to Planning Service Third Floor, Jacobs Well, Bradford BD1 5RW. I urge you – please do it now.

Edwin Schirn, Ilkley

Team Addingham is going all out for gold

Well the day of judgement has finally arrived for Addingham In Bloom.

Whatever, the result I would like to thank everyone who has helped to get Addingham ready. I have been out with the parish council, the civic society, Bradford Council and above all the garden friends and have seen first-hand the team work that has gone into get us this far. Everyone has made a tremendous effort.

Forget (for today at least) Team GB this is team Addingham going for Gold.

Fingers crossed everyone and good luck and whatever, the result, you have already made Addingham proud.

Adrian Naylor, Craven Addingham District Councillor

Cancer link to warts is not very widely known

I read this week’s health advice in the Ilkley Gazette and was surprised at Dr Mark French’s lack of knowledge on the treatment of warts. I’ve had recurring warts for more than 30 years and despite continuous cryotherapy for several years they persisted to the extent that at 20, I had 26 large warts on my hands and two on my face. Treatment by the NHS was hopeless, so in the end, I had them surgically removed privately. That treatment was largely successful and I eventually got rid of them from my hands and face.

However, what I didn’t know and hadn’t been advised (by my GP) is that they could spread to the genital area. The appearance of genital warts is completely different to the the common wart in that they are barely perceptible. I didn’t know I had them until my girlfriend at the time tested positive for HPV.

The general point is that warts are not just a cosmetic problem and should be treated as soon as possible. They are highly infectious and HPV can be a dangerous virus which can cause a variety of different types of cancer. That is why the NHS has recently introduced a vaccination programme for teenage girls.

I still get warts from time to time but, after 30 years experience, I now know how to get rid of them.

Name and address supplied