WHO are the people of Huddersfield (Comment, July 15) that are keen to see amenities improved on the ancient site of Castle Hill?
Amenities can be found elsewhere if that is what these people want. I have noticed that, where there are amenities, these amenities are abused, especially after dusk. Even cemeteries are now abused in this present climate of disrespect.
Nobody can damage a view of the magnitude of the Huddersfield area’s 360 degree vantage point, Castle Hill. But erect amenities and it will not be long before they become eyesores.
The structures will have to be built as substantial as the old hotel and tower – one has to know Castle Hill in all weathers to appreciate the velocity of the wind.
Over the last 50 years, the tower has had at least two very expensive facelifts because of he weather and vandalism.
LEN SANDFORD
Lepton
Action needed for hill
WE NOW hear that the plans for a hotel on Castle Hill have been vetoed: I shouldn’t wonder, from the fact that it was called a ‘boutique hotel’.
That is like sticking the Tate Modern there. How was this plan allowed to drag on without someone realising at some point that it was not suitable for a most historic site?
The Thandi Partnership do not seem to learn from past errors and so we are now back to square one. Excellent ideas have been proposed about making this site a visitor centre. This would attract the curiosity of both visitors and locals alike.
Will someone get their heads together as it is years overdue and needs sorting out?
KATHLEEN ETCHES
Huddersfield
Grave shame
I AM writing about the mindless morons, yobs who go around vandalising graves at our local cemeteries.
Maybe the council or local police force could employ people to guard these monuments, instead of spending on pointless things we take for granted?
I for one have been out of work since September 2008, through no fault of my own and not for the sake of not looking for work.
I would love to have a job of being part of a security team to look after and guard our loved ones who have passed away.
I visit my parents’ grave three times a week, since these thugs have nothing better to do.
Also I think when these culprits are caught they should be named and shamed then tough sentences handed out and never mind what rights they have, because the people who have died and the families who visit and still mourn their loved ones do not have any rights. So shame on those thugs.
GRAVE MOURNER
Name and address supplied
Time for truth
IT is very sad to read that eight of our soldiers were killed in one day and what is worse, as reported, they lacked the proper weaponry due to lack of funds.
Yet big sums go unchecked from so many countries to support the opposition. Some of which comes indirectly from the coffers of our Government.
It is time that the truth is revealed and correct steps taken, before many more young lives are sacrificed unnecessarily through incompetence.
Also, as for giving importance to the so-called human rights to the people who are trying to destroy us, if we had fought World War Two with the same principles, we wouldn’t have the freedom we have today.
TONY SOSNA
Huddersfield
Bring troops home
CAN anyone explain why our soldiers are in Afghanistan? I know we are told they are there as peacekeepers, but why are they being maimed and losing their lives in a country that is not directly at war with us?
We may abhor the way they oppress their people, but what is any different from Zimbabwe and many others with similar regimes? They are not in direct conflict with our nation, so how can it be called a war?
What would it have been like in 1939 to 1945 if we had German, Italian and Japanese living and working in this country, with all the same rights as us, while our men and women were being killed and maimed in the various arenas of war?
Surely the best people to bring about change in Afghanistan are the Afghans themselves? Those in this country should return to their native land and fight for it.
On the radio last week, the audience was asked if our troops should be in Afghanistan and there were only four who were in favour.
And I think that represents the rest of the country, so why are our elected representatives not taking notice? Like it or not, if Great Britain was Afghanistan and Christians were being threatened by people wanting to change us, wouldn't we be doing the same and fighting for our land?
MRS N CLARKE
Almondbury
Service with a smile
LAST WEEK my husband and I both in our late eighties decided to visit Elland and kill two birds with one stone – having a service for an electric duvet overblanket and having two squares of carpet off-cuts made into mats. We went back to where these two jobs had been done some years ago.
We arrived in Elland in torrential rain and, to our consternation, found the electric place closed down and the carpet mill now a business centre.
On making an enquiry there, two girls in reception looked up on their computers an alternative source which was The Yorkshire Carpet Co, Fartown, Huddersfield. They then rang this firm to make sure they were still offering this service, this saving us much time and trouble.
They couldn’t have been more helpful. Back in Fartown we were met by counter lads, who took our mats and bound them beautifully, charging a fraction of the price we had previously paid. Whilst we waited, two mugs of tea were brought out to us in the car. That day a group of young people put themselves out to help us. A credit to their families and a day beginning with frustration ended with smiles.
NORAH AND LAURIE LE GEYT
Kirkheaton
Protect the park
WORK has started on the long awaited and costly regeneration of Greenhead Park, this great asset to Huddersfield, after years of decay and neglect in my view, mostly to wrongly cut costs.
I remember it being well managed 40 years ago when I came to live in the area, with a resident manager and team of maintenance staff.
Let’s hope it is not just another headline-grabbing initiative by KMC.
If they can invent new jobs with fancy titles and big salaries to go with it, surely it’s not too much to ask for the park to be maintained properly and, when completed, patrolled by paid rangers and, if it is necessary, closed out of daylight hours to deter the array of miscreants we have to tolerate these days.
ANTHONY F SMITH
Springwood
Lose parish councils
WHEN the Metropolitan Council reviewed the local parish councils, I honestly thought that they might be looking for some indication of value for money and, if so, that they would close down what are little more than expensive anomalies.
I have just received the latest quarterly Holme Valley Voice. The accounts show a distinct improvement over the previous year in so far as 2008-9 provided a reduction in expenditure in the money that is spent wholly on keeping the council in operation, from £97,150 out of £256,112 to £83,758 out of £279,161.
The result has been a substantial increase in the money spent on arts and recreation, which certainly has to be a desirable outcome. However, charitable donations were halved.
Given that the council has no powers whatsoever in the matter of planning, it was interesting to see that it “commented” on 400 applications for planning consent.
Previous years have indicated that the “comments” are ineffectual in those few applications which are controversial, if Kirklees Council determines to pursue a policy at variance with the parish council’s commentary.
As far as I can see, the existence of the parish council, in proportion to its cost, does very little to benefit the local community, which has to pay heavily for the privilege of its continued existence.
It is an imposition of a costly further layer of civic government on those who are already very much over taxed and over governed.
JOHN GARDENER
Netherton
Happy memories
REGARDING your photograph in Memory Lane (Thursday, July 16) of the Huddersfield Division of the West Riding Constabulary.
It was a great joy for me to see my late father’s photograph, Special Constable Freddy Wimpenny on the left.
He was in the ‘specials’ during the war years and was based at Slaithwaite Police Station on Manchester Road.
He later became an inspector in the ‘specials’.
MRS NANCY MEADOWS
Golcar
