Letters to the editor

With no national event this year Yorkshire Day seemed like a good place to start, especially as the town has never really embraced the occasion. It would have been a lot of effort for one day so I liaised with our increasingly active Otley Town Council community development officer to see if his office could draw together and publicise a month of Yorkshire-themed events to try and establish another festival to cheer up the town.

Happily, our display of Yorkshire Roses in support of this inaugural Yorkshire Month, has struck a chord and it’s pleasing that several buildings around town have joined in with flags and bunting of their own. It’s also a relief that, so far, only four have been ripped down by drunks and needed replacing, far fewer than previous events.

However, I’d question the wisdom of Jeff Utley’s letter to the pages of the Wharfedale Observer and I’ll take responsibility for his complaint.

Firstly, and to address his point directly, Jeff contests that some are “the wrong way up”. To quote the Yorkshire Ridings Society: “According to the College of Heralds, the heraldic rose can be used with a petal at the top or with a sepal at the top. In Yorkshire there is a tradition of using the rose with a petal at the top in the North Riding and the West Riding but with a sepal at the top in the East Riding.”

It seems that ‘the right way up’ is more a matter of convention and preference and there isn’t even consensus across the county. The inversion of the rose has no bearing on its status (unlike, for example, the Union Flag which, as any vexilologist knows, when flown upside down becomes a distress signal), so not the end of the world either way.

Secondly, describing the design as a “cheap imitation” is a little strong. The background light blue colour might not be to Jeff’s taste but when sourcing 150-plus flags that’s what was available and represented excellent value for the modest public expense.

Thirdly and most importantly, as Jeff will know from his beer festival, the town is dependent on the enthusiasm of a relatively small band of volunteers to stage our many and various community events.

It’s a bit deflating to our team of nine veteran flag erectors (many over or near retirement age, others taking time away from their businesses), who gave their best toiling in first broiling hot then torrential downpour conditions to get the display up in time for the Food Festival, to then read of their efforts being found fault with so publicly.

I’m sure no harm was meant but perhaps more diplomatic to pause and remember the first line of ‘A Yorkshireman’s Advice To His Son’, “See all, hear all, say nowt”… Tim Wilkinson Bondgate, Otley I will continue to fight for justice where I can I have spent most of my political career trying to help not just my own nation gain its independence but other people’s across the world. The Amadiyyas are persecuted in Pakistan and Indonesia and I have visited these charming and industrious people in their holy city of Guardian.

My Sikh friends, with whom I share a regimental association, also invited me to Amritsar to explain their case for more political freedom. The world’s scandalous treatment of Somalilanders is a cause I have also embraced in the last few years.

All this is on my website and available to anyone who can be bothered to look. My recent vilification in much of the press will not stop me from fighting for justice wherever and whenever I can.

Godfrey Bloom UKIP MEP for Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire Tesco has had plenty of time to begin building I have lodged an objection with Bradford to the renewal of the Tesco planning application.

Tesco has had plenty of time to commence construction and it seems drainage is the problem. If Tesco hasn’t yet been able to overcome it in three years then the prospect of ever doing so seems remote.

In addition, events have moved against their projections on increased trading and these are now out of date, with the advent of Morrisons’ busy little store; they command considerable loyalty.

The old Ilkley brewery building was demolished, despite local sentiment and the wish of Ilkley Brewery to use it, critically to enable Tesco to get closer to the town centre; but then “Every little helps”.

Tesco has no sentiment for local communities; it’s just a big business sitting on towns like a parasite sucking profit off to its shareholders. Mr Stephens the planning inspector seemed to suggest we should all love Tesco; in his report, para. 60 he seems to suggest that Tesco will generate, “additional and better quality jobs” and “should help alleviate the growth in the use of motor cars for journeys to work”. So that’s what we have to offer the young generation?

We now have the eyesore of what appears to be a huge bomb site to greet visitors coming to the town by train; for how much longer? This site would be much better used for first-time buyers, low cost housing, not for sale to landlords, reducing the pressure to use green field sites purely to accommodate developers who already have substantial land banks. I am also very concerned about public nuisance arising from the large Stobarts lorries making deliveries to this site, given that they are 2.5 metres wide (excluding side mirrors) and with trailers over 15 metres long, which must cause them to track onto the wrong side of the road on the bends on a narrow road, Valley Drive. Buses on this route are route are wider than 2.3 metres, again excluding side mirrors. In my view this is a recipe for disaster.

What parking restrictions will have to be imposed in Valley Drive?

I was surprised that the cycle lane at the junction of Wheatley Lane and the A65 was to be surrendered, given road safety issues for cyclists. But presumably with Mr Cameron’s announcement the lane will remain. How a Stobart’s lorry and a bus will negotiate this junction together is problematic. Where is the delivery lorry to the factory shop going to unload?

I have quite a few reservations with regard to the contents of the report of Mr Stephens which I have read; and there are some ‘howlers’ – para 88 is a classic: “I consider that the appeal proposal would provide a modern larger scale shopping offer commensurate with the town’s position in the hierarchy which would compete more effectively with the key competing stores; Morrisons at (3,293 sq m net) at Guiseley and Morrisons at Skipton (3,085 sq m net). What about Tesco in Skipton?” No supermarkets in Otley then?

He commented that traffic problems on the A65 were not issues for him; he seemed unable to grasp the fact that there is, to all intents and purposes, only one in and out of Ilkley, unlike many other towns.

In the Independent of July 30 there was an article concerning an interview with Tesco’s UK managing director Chris Bush; he admitted that the bid to create ‘exciting’ retail destinations is an attempt to lure shoppers off the internet and back into the shops. He said: “In the past, large hypermarkets were popular because they offered a massive range of products and people liked being able to buy everything under one roof – it made life easier.”

In an interview in The Grocer, Mr Bush explained how part of his “vision” for turning stores into “exciting” destinations is because customers can have a meal or coffee with their friends and family, browse for clothes and get their hair done. They can go to yoga classes or attend cookery classes in a space available for the local community to use. So where does that leave town centre shops and traders? When is some politician going to stand up to these supermarkets? Cameron has backed down on minimum price for alcohol; supermarkets use packs of beer as loss leaders to get punters through the door; Tesco are now scheming to keep them in store. I have to say I do worry about Bradford Planning Department.

Brian Phillips Craiglands Park, Ilkley We’re all in it together, are we, Mr Cameron?

Whilst the depression is apparently over (although growth of less than 0.5 per cent sounds a bit like a 30-stone man buying himself a doughnut for losing one ounce after putting on a further three stone) we have had the on-going comfort throughout of the Prime Minister stating: “We’re all in this together”.

Given that the government has introduced fees for the unfairly dismissed worker to pay to bring an action against their responsible erstwhile employer, I am beginning to wonder if the proclamation was no more than a bit of Tony Blair-esque spin.

In order to get through these straitened times “together” surely the rights of workers would have received protection, especially when they are most likely to be needed most?

Despite this, as we look back, the Coalition appears to have attacked rather than protected the rights of the workforce.

Take the right not to be unfairly dismissed. It used to be gained after a year’s service. Apparently however a year now isn’t enough for an employer to tell whether you are a “Steve Jobs” rather than a “Notuptothe Jobs”.

The worker, however, now has to be employed for over two years before they have the right not to be dismissed without rhyme or reason. (For reference two years is the period multi-millionaire cabinet minister David Laws spent out of the cabinet for falsely claiming £30,000.) Just in case you make it over the two years the Coalition has now decided you are required to fork out up to £1,200 to pursue your case! (For reference PM Mr Cameron claimed a similar amount from you for wisteria pruning and other odd jobs at his home. I wonder if I can get the taxpayer to pay for my lawn mowing? I suspect I can bring it in well under a grand!). Whilst most workers I know don’t have £1,200 to hand, especially following an unfair dismissal, as “we’re all in this together”, do the readers know anyone with the cash to help them out?

Rogan Ashton Bradford Road, Otley We must do something about this eyesore ‘slum’ When we have the wonderful Tour de France cycle race next year are we going to do something about the slum of a building on Bridge Street in Otley.

People who visit Otley can go to sit in our lovely Wharfe Meadows Park, but they have to walk past this eyesore.

How can this be left all this time; does nobody care?

Saving Dunwell’s cafe seems to be more important than this building being down. Why is nothing being done?

Mrs M Maud Newall Close, Otley I couldn’t believe loss of this beautiful beech tree I could not believe it when I saw the beautiful beech tree coming down on The Grove. Alas it was too late by then. I was dismayed a year or two back when the trunk was boxed in and feared it would suffer from lack of water. I wish I had voiced my concern then.

Pam Twiss Addingham (lived in Ilkley for more than 30 years) Help me in my search for lovely Teddy Bears I write in the hope of requesting some help from your readers. For many years I have been an avid collector of Big Softie Teddy Bears that were originally made around the Ilkley/Otley area of your lovely county. I am desperately trying to complete my collection that was started by a family member a number of years ago, going back to the 1990s as far as I am aware.

I wonder if anybody in your area has any of these lovely bears that they would like to sell. I am happy to buy single bears or whole collections and will travel to collect if they would prefer this to posting. I can be contacted on 07415 109437 if anyone can help.

Simone Hepburn 82 Berwyn Close, Basingstoke Hampshire, RG22 5BL