I VISITED Castle Hill over the weekend. It was shabby and tired but everyone knows that.
Castle Hill presents this town with an incredible visual landmark – one which we seriously undervalue and one which, by letting it go to ruin, says little about our standards as townfolk.
ŠA modest tourist centre overlooking the town, celebrating the rich and unique textile history of Huddersfield, would be both appropriate and fantastic. If this went a step further to show the end result of the fabric and yarn by way of exhibiting finished garments etc, I believe we could have a worldwide attraction which would bring with it much needed revenue and profile for the town.
ŠThere would also be a perfect synergy with the university and its ever-growing fashion and textile pedigree.
ŠI’m imagining something akin to the Eden Centre glass domes – how great it would be to look toward the town and see where the great mills once stood and then take in a selection of suits worn in famous films and by famous people, all of which originated in those very mills.
Julian Kynaston
Upper Denby
Fluoride scare tactics
D J EDMONDSON from Calderdale invites Kirklees Council to consider a possible connection between fluoride in tap water and the washing out of nuclear facilities (Mailbag Jan 12).
This, I think, must be the same Mr Edmondson who advised us many years ago that fluoridation had little to do with teeth and everything to do with Margaret Thatcher’s “secret plan for mind control” of the whole population, following, he said, the example of Hitler.
My dentist said that there were no scientific or reasonable grounds to support his campaign which has denied healthy teeth to millions of children.
The stubborn fact that Mr Edmondson cannot deal with, except by propagating utter nonsense, is that in areas where fluoride occurs naturally in the water supply, teeth are significantly better and no injurious effects have been detected despite many research projects. The only known adverse effect of too much fluoride, such as using fluoride tablets when it already exists in the water supply, is slight discolouration of the very much improved quality tooth enamel.
I think it is appalling that local authorities have ignored the advice of health professionals and kowtowed to a vociferous minority who use emotional arguments and scare tactics to dupe people into accepting their spurious arguments and totally unscientific and detrimental opinion.
Mark Mercer
Golcar
Re-think this bottleneck
ISN’T it time for a major rethink to the traffic bottleneck at Lockwood Bar? Cannot Albert Street be made one-way outbound for through traffic, reduce Lockwood Road to one outbound lane, mainly for buses and Meltham traffic, then introduce two inbound lanes to link Lockwood Bar to Chapel Hill.
It’s only a suggestion but let’s hope it gets the ball rolling before more accidents occur.
J Holmes
Newsome
Say farewell, Action Man
GORDON BROWN says, in the context of the present economic crisis, that “doing nothing is not an option”. Fine soundbite, designed to depict our Premier as Action Man.
Two problems here, though. First, Action Man is a plastic doll with no substance (I'll go along with that analogy). Second, Brown assumes that he (and by inference he alone) has “the only” answer to, by his own Freudian slip, the problems of the world.
What Brown chooses to ignore, and hopes that we will forget, is that he spent a decade as Chancellor before his over-promotion. If our very own Harold Wilson, of course a predecessor of Brown as a Labour Prime Minister, was correct in saying that “a week is a long time in politics”, then Brown has had an eternity to right our economic woes. It might appear that his was not the safe pair of hands that the New Labour spin machine made it out to be.
In fact, the present state of the debt-ridden and fundamentally unsound UK economy is a direct result of Brown’s stewardship (alongside his unlamented erstwhile boss Blair). We are where we are because of Brown’s actions and interventions. Doing nothing not an option? Perhaps he should heed the words of his immediate predecessor as Labour Chancellor, Denis Healey – if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Brown has done more digging than a Klondike stake holder, and then sold the national gold at a massive loss. Put the shovel away Gordon and draw your golden pension. You’ve not earned your comfortable retirement, but the country deserves it. Indeed, we need it.
Bill Armer
Deighton
Decline of a once clean area
IN reply to J Holmes of Newsome (Mailbag January 10) I too am a resident of Stile Common Road and I daren’t venture out when dark.
Half of my neighbours have moved out as they could not even park near their own homes. Most of the houses have been bought by landlords to rent out. It is not only their cars parked for days on end but also their friends’ cars as well.
Also people working in the town centre park and walk.
One student in a Range Rover parks regularly and also uses the gutter for his empty Lucozade bottles. Also the landlords need to tidy the gardens etc.
What a pity, it used to be a nice clean area.
j sykes
Stile Common
Rubbish parking perhaps
OUR bin men aren’t rubbish as they came on the correct day and took all the rubbish (plus extras).
What a shame residents at the top of Prince Street don’t leave any room for them to get down. I have seen them call back a few times because the residents leave their cars parked both sides of the road every Wednesday night.
j r peacock
Newsome
Shared view of orange lights
AFTER reading recent readers’ letters, I have to say that I saw one orange light which fits the description of the other lights.
It was around ten past midnight on New Year’s Day – fireworks were banging loudly, so I went to comfort our dog. She sleeps on the landing. I looked out of the window to watch the fireworks, and saw an orange glowing ball which seemed to be hovering, then it moved slowly upwards and gradually disappeared.
The window faces north east. At first I thought it was perhaps a firework, but now I’m sure it was one of the orange lights.
margaret fairclough
Longwood
More sightings
I CONTACTED you regarding a strange orange object in the sky on Christmas Day night which you published. Many people thought it was possibly a Chinese lantern but I don’t believe it was. After watching the evening news January 8 a sighting had been reported and filmed, I believe in Scotland. This was the identical orange light which I reported to you,
PAUL ELLIFF
Flockton
Banking on winning
RUNAWAY housing markets are no different to chain letters or pyramid selling, the rules are the same - last one in loses and, as with all gambling games, it’s the bank that wins.
allen jenkinson
Milnsbridge
Lesson in basic sick pay
BOY! A £4.2m bill for teachers putting in sickies (Examiner, January 7). Why don’t our council use some common sense and pay teachers the basic SSP just like most working Joe Public.
Bet you could see more teachers’ attendance.
They are taking taxpayers for mugs, what with their big pay packet and long holidays.
Years ago folk putting on sickies for stress were classed as lazy.
Make your own mind up on what teachers are playing at?
Mike Warren-Madden
Honley
Immediate memories
READING Barry Gibson’s column on January 7 regarding his well remembered teacher Miss Ireland and her unconventional treatment of teaching brought back memories of another teacher, Miss Clarke.
She taught in the 1930s and 40s at Almondbury Council School in Fenay Lane.
Not for her the cane and slaps and thrown blackboard rubbers. She was stern but kind and above all a really good teacher.
Her particular emphasis was on spelling. There were lots of words written on the blackboard and five minutes before the end of the last lesson we repeated these words parrot fashion.
After about a fortnight we were given a written test, after which if we achieved a good result a new list of words was chalked up.
Over 50 years after I left school I met a fellow pupil I had not seen for over 30 years and when reminiscing about Miss Clarke, we both said the word “immediately” because that was the first word on the first list.
Incidentally in the 1960s when the new Almondbury Junior School was built, Miss Clarke was brought out of retirement to teach and my son-in-law was one of her pupils.
She had an almost 100% pass rate for the 11 plus (as she had in my day) and my son-in-law and I are the best spellers in our family.
Mrs N Clarke
Almondbury
Unhelpful phone cost
I RECENTLY phoned the police 0845 number after an appeal for information in the Examiner regarding a nasty street robbery of a young woman.
The five minute land line call cost me 45p! Not a lot of money maybe, but I’ll think twice next time before trying to help.
david jones
Newsome
Unfair rebuke
IT is wrong to have a go at prince Harry. I married a Pole and we always talked of this Pole and that Pole. There is nothing wrong in using the word Paki.. Why pick on Prince Harry?
Mrs Hilda Popiel
Slaithwaite
