I FIND I have to reply to the story regarding the planned revamp for Richmond Flats (Examiner, October 30).

I have worked in the building trade for 42 years and live in a semi-detached house valued at about £80,000 so can somebody tell me how it is going to cost £87,500 to refurbish each flat?

You can do a lot with £87,500 and I would love to see the tenders for this job.

How long will it take to recoup the money and what will the rent be?

I think the whole thing is a complete waste of public money.

M J Parker

Huddersfield

Money wasted

I CANNOT believe what I read in the Examiner regarding Richmond Flats to be modernised at £87,500 per flat!

Triple glazing, solar panels, new kitchens, bathrooms and digital TV. The world has gone mad.

The less you contribute to society the more you get on your plate. Have we not learnt anything in the last 25 years?

Kirklees Clr Peter McBride states that the flats will become very desirable and this idea was cheaper than knocking the flats down and starting again. Clr McBride, this is not Harrogate.

The flats are on a busy ring road next to a soon to be 24hour Tesco supermarket. Go and visit the existing Tesco late at night to see how desirable your flats will be.

Just knock the eyesore down and don’t build anything in its place. You could then re invest part of the money in collecting the massive unpaid rent from some of your other existing/past council tenants.

How about using part of the money for elderly services who at least would appreciate the extra funding? Within five years, a lot of the flats will need to be gutted and renovated leaving it as shabby as it ever was.

A half-baked idea and a waste of £3.7 million pounds. We need a council with bigger and better ideas than we have at the minute for our town to prosper in the long term.

Name and address supplied.

Counting the cost

WHERE on earth does Clr Peter McBride get his quotes from?

The average cost to build a two bedroom town house to medium spec from scratch is at present in the range of £42,300 to £58,500 so how does he arrive at the price of £87,500 to refurbish a single flat?

After all there is no building to do which is the majority of the costs.

I know there are many local contractors who could do the refurbishments to the highest specification for a third of the cost the councillor quotes.

How long will it be before Kirklees is telling us that the cost of this refurbishment has significantly increased?

There is no mention in the report of the effects of inflation, currently at 2.2%.

Therefore if the work started immediately the cost would escalate by £81,400, bringing the cost to £3,781,400, in the first year, and if the work carries on for a couple of years and it inevitably will, and if inflation stays the same then the cost will spiral to £3,864,590-80p and therefore increase the cost of each flat conversion to £91,392-35p

I personally think that it makes more economic, sense and a better use of Kirklees council tax payers’ money to build two houses instead of refurbishing one flat for £91,392-35p and sell the Richmond Flats to a private developer for whatever use.

Bearing in mind that for £3,700,000 it is possible to build at least 70 medium to high spec two bedroom houses.

David Townend

Huddersfield

Wake up call

JUST how much money do Huddersfield councillors think we have to waste?

Richmond Flats should be pulled down. End of! Coming just after the complete and utter shambles that is the Police Commissioner’s election, it is time the politicians started to live in the real world. Wake up people there is a recession on.

David Baxter

Meltham

Just bewildering

I REFER to the Flat Rate headlines in the Examiner on the October 30 where the planners have given a green light to a £3.7million facelift to flats that should have been demolished 20 years ago.

Are these the same planners who gave the green light to build on Lindley Moor or are we dealing with a new breed of planners?

I like many others were staggered to read that each flat will have £87,500 spent on it, which I find is totally bewildering.

Are Kirklees Council so flush with funds that they can waste such vast amounts before they sort out the other additional problems like repairs to potholes/resurfacing roads and so on?

I can only assume that the top floor will be the penthouse suite that will be fit for a king or perhaps it could be for the Chief Executive, and each floor below can be suitably attired for the planning moguls who came up with such a ridiculous idea.

Or am I being cynical?

Peter Waller

Huddersfield

Feeling overwhelmed

I LIKE to donate to charity shops and buy from them at times but I feel a certain one is pushing customers too much in their efforts to get more money.

The one very near the Town Hall in Huddersfield has really put me and probably other people off from calling in.

On Tuesday I went in and at the entrance to this rather small shop someone was standing there with a large bucket obviously for donations.

After about three minutes looking round someone came up to me trying to sell a raffle ticket!

I feel that people should only be asked to buy a raffle ticket at the counter and a donation box used there not a bucket near the door.

All other charities let people look around their shops in peace not pester them so they feel obliged to give every time they go in or feel embarrassed refusing. Don’t push your customers.

Name and address supplied

A charity’s thanks

I AM writing on behalf of the committee and members to ask if you would be so kind as to publish this letter in your newspaper.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the most generous people of the Kirklees area who supported our fund raising efforts at various points in the Huddersfield on October 12 this year.

As a self-funding charity supporting ex-service personnel, it is becoming increasingly harder to raise monies to facilitate the work we do. Support such as theirs helps us greatly in this matter.

We are please to inform you, that as a result of the generosity of the public, we raised a total of £340. One such collection allows us to cover the cost of our work for up to six months.

May I once again express our thanks for their kindness.

Pete Whitehouse, Hon Secretary

Royal Naval Association

Service will be missed

THANK YOU JRT for the excellent bus service you have given us.

We, at the Mount will miss your reliable drivers, always on time and ready to help passengers especially the elderly. It has been a pleasure to ride with you.

Nearly 90

Mount

Pension problems

ALL the recent publicity regarding works pension brought back memories of my experience with them from many years ago.

I was works engineer for my firm that went into liquidation in 1974, I was nearly the last to leave that year.

My pension details seems very much less than expected, after one or two questions I was informed the firm’s share was not included, this was about half the total amount.

I thought this was most unfair and maybe even illegal, so I contacted as many of the staff who were in the scheme with a view to engaging a solicitor or seeking legal advice.

After a poor response to my efforts I was left with only two people to share the legal costs so I decided to abandon the idea.

Recent publicity leads me to believe our firm were wrong to take half my pension. Maybe someone can answer the question were they right or wrong?

Harry Broadbent

Rastrick

Spot on service

I WOKE Monday morning to no central heating and a very little hot water.

I rang Kirklees Repairs Department at 9.15am, by 12.30pm it was up and running again.

Thank you and well done Kirklees Repairs.

Pensioner

Berry Brow