THE Kirklees LDF being rushed out before procedures change to encourage greater democracy and before the May elections, (Examiner, February 7) is similar to the LDF plan last year which Kirklees failed to send to most households in the area.
Despite great opposition, this council is still willing to bulldoze Green Belt – that is, land that is supposed to be protected.
The 15 hectares (or 37 acres, or 15 Trafalgar Squares) in Clayton West mentioned in your report is for industrial building, all on the Green Belt land.
Such industrial use will be great warehousing distribution sheds for the M1. There are already enough of these complexes in Yorkshire waiting for firms to occupy them without pouring out more on to our landscape.
Such concrete deserts do not actually create a lot of employment and will put more HGVs on our roads and there is no guarantee that Kirklees people would get any of the few jobs created.
The landscape between the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Clayton West is a beautiful, irreplaceable vista. It includes areas which encourage local tourism.
But Kirklees wishes to destroy this for no good reason as it does the Green Belt elsewhere in the area.
If they pass the current LDF then Kirklees will be able to stop all local residents (voters and tax payers) from opposing the bulldozers because the right to concrete the Green Belt, let alone green fields, will already be in this 18 year plan.
Why are they in such a rush?
Philip Reynolds
Parish priest, St Aidan, Skelmanthorpe
A question of profit
ISN’T it time the likes of Bill Armer and Trevor Woolley accepted that we live in a democracy?
We, the voters, elect three local councillors per ward to scrutinise and decide what is in the best interests of all the inhabitants of Kirklees, not just a few with vested interests.
This framework has been discussed, debated and amended for the last three years. It’s time it was settled. Now would be better than June.
I can understand Mr Armer’s objections because he is repeating the party line that public is bad, private is good and all public employees are superfluous to requirements.
However, Mr Woolley is being naïve if he thinks the proposed abolition of the Regional Spatial Strategy will save the Green Belt.
It’s not really about Kirklees at all. The only reason for its abolition is that major donors to the current government’s party coffers want to build thousands of houses in locations (especially the South East) where they can make the most profit.
That’s on Green Belt land, Mr Woolley.
Markham Weavill
Linthwaite
We need more time
CONGRATULATIONS to Barry Gibson and Bill Armer for pointing out how Kirklees Council are not playing fair with the public by unexpectedly bringing ratification of the LDF forward by three months (Examiner, February 7).
However, what the article doesn’t highlight is that Kirklees Council seems very reluctant to let anyone see the revised LDF or know what they are intending to do at the extraordinary council meeting on March 6 until seven days before the event.
In our view, seven days is not enough time for councillors or the public to give due consideration and respond to something that is critically important to the vast majority of people in Kirklees.
Barry’s article also doesn’t say that the council seems determined to approve the LDF before the revised new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is published and implemented by the Government later this month or early next.
It seems extraordinary that the council wants to push ahead with the LDF when they don’t even know what the government’s ground rules in the NPPF are.
In particular, they don’t know what needs to be included in the LDF to implement Neighbourhood Planning across Kirklees.
Perhaps the clue comes in the fact that Neighbourhood Planning is intended to give local communities a much greater say on planning matters.
Isn’t it about time that our council started to play fair with the public?
Robert Bamforth
Kirklees Community Action Network
Attending meetings
IN reply to Clr Andrew Cooper’s letter (Mailbag, February 2) on the Kirkburton by-election, his comments on my attendance at meetings is very simply answered.
When I rejoined the parish council for the relatively short term left after a councillor resigned my circumstances changed. To enable me to give Kirklees Council my full attention I was unable to attend as many parish council meetings as I would have liked.
Just for the record, in 12½ years on Kirklees Council I have missed only one full council meeting due to illness.
As to Clr Cooper’s reference to costs of by-elections, these by-elections were necessary due to the resignation of both a Green Party member and a Conservative Party member because of the way the Green leadership of Kirkburton Parish Council was conducting its business.
It is interesting that Clr Cooper now concerns himself with the financial business of the parish council after supporting payments totalling £6,000 to parish councillor Michelle Atkinson for the Walkers Are Welcome project.
Parish councillors in the past have overseen numerous projects absolutely free of charge. Some councillors have actually done work on sites like Grange Moor, again free of charge.
My current circumstances would now allow me to become involved in parish council activities once again.
Adrian Murphy
Lepton
Unwise spending
I MUST congratulate Clr Martyn Bolt for uncovering the purchase of Park Works Gears (Examiner, February 6) and that Kirklees Council has agreed to purchase the property, providing they, the company, relocate within the council’s area.
How much have they agreed to pay? They have absolutely no right to use our money like this. The council has an £80m black hole, owns property all over the council area which they cannot sell or lease, yet carry on regardless giving out loans such as £23m to Kirklees College while Huddersfield is decaying and dying.
Our town centre footpaths are covered in chewing gum, shops are closed or closing, the Market Hall is operating at 50% capacity. What is the council doing to regenerate the town? Nothing of consequence.
Then we have a planning committee authorising the build in Mirfield.
Will the council buy my house providing I stay within the council area? No chance.
It’s high time meetings behind closed doors and meetings in secret were banned.
If Kirklees wants to save money scrap the council and start again with only one councillor per ward. Why do we have to have three? We only have one MP.
I repeat, it is our money you are dealing with, Kirklees Council, and you are not spending it on our services.
PF
Fixby
Saving our hospital
I AM writing in response to the article in Friday’s Examiner regarding the changes taking place at Dewsbury Hospital.
I would like to thank our MP Simon Reevell for proving my point.
He tells us not to worry. If something bad is decided for our hospital he willŠ ‘stand at the barricades with the next guy.’
As the MP paid to represent Dewsbury shouldn’t he have a little more interest and influence in this than the next guy?
By the time the decisions are made and the proverbial bulldozers are in there won’t be anything he or anyone else can do.
The time to build the barricades is now. In Pontefract there are three MPs – Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper and Jon Trickett – who are lobbying to keep services at their hospital. Where is our MP? Who is fighting for Dewsbury?
We are looking at the very real possibility of losing key services to hospitals like Pontefract and Pinderfields.ŠPeople don’t need to take my word for it.
The Trust has admitted that services are currently being reviewed and the idea of cutting key services from Dewsbury is very much on the table. Now is the time to lobby.
Calling me a scaremonger is exactly the kind of political nonsense Mr Reevell claims to rise above.ŠThis is a time when we should be above political point scoring and should be pulling together to ensure the people of Dewsbury do not lose out.
I will work with him or anyone else on that agenda.
It seems like the MP would rather trade personal insults than have a reasoned debate about the fact our hospital is under threat. That won’t save our hospital.
Karen Rowling
Prospective Labour candidate, Dewsbury West
