THE VERBAL sparring between the two losing  candidates in the recent  Kirkburton Parish Council  elections has made interesting reading.
I note that both representatives come from two of the  main political parties, Conservative and Labour.
The number of voters eligible to vote, from my  reading of the census figures, is about 12,000, of  which 677 actually thought there was something  worth making the effort for.
The two main party representatives polled around  250 and 200 votes, hardly a ringing endorsement for  either parties’ policies.
The Green party candidates who won fared little  better. Their 300+ votes can hardly be seen as a tidal  wave of public enthusiasm for their policies either.
I know it was a winter’s day but I can’t help but  suspect the ice cream man may have attracted more  customers out of a population so large.
I usually sum up the choice put before me on election  days, both local and national, as being one of ‘do I  want to be hung, drawn or quartered?’ It would  appear a few more people share my view.
Meanwhile, back in the Palace of Yesminister, the  coagulation government which was cobbled together  after no single party could attract enough support to  claim a mandate, continues to kick national treasures and values up in the air and hope when they  land they will still work.
I also notice the rioting and looting has moved  indoors for the winter. Some MPs are indulging in  knocking seven bells out of others while the bankers’  quest for gold continues unhindered.
John Langford
Lepton

We’ve got it covered

TO revive the town centre, an idea might be to make  the area from the top of Chapel Hill to possibly the  St George’s Square into one giant arcade.

With today’s technology with plastics (look at the  Eden Project in Cornwall) it should not be beyond  the capabilities of the powers-that-be to do  something of this nature. To stop it being a wind  tunnel from the Chapel Hill end it could be blocked  apart from entries.

People would then be able to browse and sit out to  their heart’s content and the idea would surely entice  folk back into town. I realise that this would not be  cheap but something radical needs to be done if the  centre is to flourish again.
NM
 Meltham

What exactly do they do?

IN Kirklees we have 69 councillors who cost us  £238,000 plus. What exactly is their added value to  services and in what way do they benefit the local  taxpayer?
You may say oversight of the paid officials, a finger  on the pulse, a voice reflecting the views of the  people, a focal point for enquiry and complaint.
I would counter that by saying that if these worthy  people are working their socks off for the community  why appoint a management team to professionally  run Kirklees?
Without any political bias let me say the current  system is an unaffordable luxury left from a Victorian era.
Meetings attended, reports written, critical thinking  time are about as relevant as the pack horse, mule  train – or maybe just a gravy train.
Howard Boothroyd
Highburton

A place for belief

CHRIS Leyland was very economical with his use of  history in his letter ‘Faith in secularism’ (Mailbag,  February 23).
He starts with crusades over 1,000 years ago and  omits mention of  two recent regimes based entirely  on secular principles.
The Nazis, who put priests and other religious  leaders in the concentration camps, murdered millions of people in the name of modern secular ideas.  After 15 years they were defeated  by people who  didn’t replace God with secularism.
Secondly, we had Soviet communism, again entirely  secular, which officially proclaimed religion as an  opium for stupid masses.
These people again murdered millions in inhuman  conditions in gulags and Siberia in the name of  equality in their 70 years of existence and, incidentally, created huge inequalities in society.
Communism was eliminated by the inspiration of  religions, mainly by the Polish Catholics who started  the campaign against that regime.
It would be very dangerous if  all politics was secular.  History shows that secular politics denies democratic principles and tends to turn to militarism.
Tony Sosna
Huddersfield

It’s time to pay up

READING that Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing is owed about £5m by current and former  tenants took me back to the early 1950s when the  large Fernside Estate in Almondbury was being  built.
The head of housing was Miss Sawyer, a formidable woman who could strike fear into the hearts of  grown men. No-one stepped out of line with her.  Woe betide anyone who did not have the rent at the  ready when she called.
 I have known people hide behind doors and even  under the kitchen sink, willing the baby not to cry  until she had gone. She used to look through the  windows and shout through the letter box: “I know  you’re in there and the rent had better be paid next  time.”
And the rent was paid because not to have done  would have meant eviction. It was the same  with gardens. They had to be kept up to scratch  or the same warning letter would go out to the  tenant.
So perhaps Kirklees Housing could learn a few  lessons from Miss Sawyer. I would like to bet  there were very few tenants in arrears in her  day.
Mrs N Clarke
Almondbury

Tesco hasn’t shut shops
WHILE waiting for my mother to get home on  Saturday I parked at Tesco in Penistone and  had a quick walk around the town.
I saw no boarded-up shops. There were two  butchers, two pharmacies and two newsagents.   The Co-op and Spar appeared to be trading as  well as ever. There is still a weekly market in a  superb new £1m hall. Penistone’s inhabitants  don’t seem to mind using the car park Tesco  provides while they shop elsewhere.
I asked my mum how many shops had closed  since Tesco opened 18 months ago (against a  storm of protest).  She answered: ‘None yet’.   Note the glass – half-empty ‘yet’.
Holmfirth’s anti-Tesco mob don’t want the  store because it’s out of town, Huddersfield’s  don’t want one because it’s in town – let’s at  least have some consistency, guys!
Perhaps Holmfirth will still be ‘special’ even  with a Tesco.
Richard Huddleston
West Slaithwaite

Protest is not over

THE clearing of the protest camp at St Paul’s  came as no surprise and is not the end of the  Occupy movement in Britain.
The camp at Finsbury Gardens near Moorgate  is set to continue as is the occupation of various  empty buildings around the capital.
The Occupy movement has done much to  contribute to the debate regarding austerity  and economic crisis and has gone some way to  point a direction to the alternative.
Ian Brooke
Springwood

Extended plateaux?
I SEE the obsession with road humps and  plateaux is about to be exercised yet again,  causing further misery for motorists and more  wear and tear, fuel wastage and pollution from  the constant stop-start which characterises  motoring in Huddersfield.
I have an idea – how about laying one single  plateau the full length of some of our typical  pitted and potholed roads and then for once we  would have a decent surface to ride on!
Alan Starr
Golcar

I’ve got the hump
WE now have the council and councillors  wanting to install speed humps on Birkby Hall  Road – at what cost?
This town is infested by huge potholes that are  damaging people’s vehicles at an astonishing  rate. Have they all gone completely mad?  
David Peace
Edgerton

Grayson the right man

LIKE many others I have been following the  saga of Huddersfield Town over the last few  weeks.  
I have also been following the debate since the  appointment of Simon Grayson as the new  manager.  
Some Town fans have expressed scepticism  because of his connections with Leeds United.   Let me say that this is irrelevant.  It will be  irrelevant to them too if he is a success.
A similar situation arose at Sheffield United  with Danny Wilson.  
They are now singing his name, albeit with a  little irony.  
I believe Simon Grayson is a good appointment  and have no doubt that he will give it 100%.  
If we play Leeds United he will want to beat  them just like any other team.  
He has a job to do and he will give it his best  shot, but Town are running out of road and it  will have to be some run in to secure one of the  automatic spots.
liam mcparland
Huddersfield