I WALKED my dog in Greenhead Park all through winter and watched in amazement at the work the council-employed men and women’s work to restore the park to its former glory.
I don’t come from Yorkshire. I moved here only two years ago and last year was the first time I visited the park.
Every day, come rain, shine or ice, people were working hard to renovate this beautiful open space.
As this year went into spring the park came alive and as the warm weather increased so did the visitors to the park.
The first really hot day a few weeks ago I didn’t take my dog to the park until early evening as it would be quieter and I stood in horror looking at the state the park had been left in.
Beer cans, bottles, fast food bags – you name it, it was left strewn all over the grassed area. Most of the litter bins were half empty so there was no reason to leave the rubbish.
I have been in several times since and each time I found again the park was left in a terrible state. The paddling pool was littered with plastic and glass bottles.
The pond with the new ducks on was dirty with containers, bottles and so on floating in it.
As I walked round the bowling green which takes all year to prepare, I saw children – and adults – playing football on it.
It is clearly signposted not to play on the green other than for bowling so I can’t understand why people blatantly ignore simple requests.
I would imagine that Huddersfield was very lucky to have received the Lottery funding to restore the park as it is a fantastic asset to the town.
If only the people frequenting it could see that and treat it with a bit of respect.
John Thorpe
Lindley
Planners ‘bullied’
CHRIS Marsden, chairman of the Huddersfield Civic Society, claims a ‘spokesperson’ from Kirklees College bullied, threatened and railroaded the Planning Sub Committee into passing plans for obnoxious cladding on the new college in Chapel Hill, stating that if the plans were not passed that day, the Government funding would be lost.
Who is running this town, the council or a spokesman from a Kirklees College?
Perhaps Christine Smith can pass comment. She has been specially trained in planning and acts on advice, she says.
As for the Civic Society, are they not the people who think the brick tiles on the front of that concrete monstrosity, the Market Hall, are wonderful?
Hard Up and Fed Up
Huddersfield
Another skyline blight
Chris Marsden’s letter ‘college cladding’ (Mailbag, June 30) confirmed fears that the brute of a building being constructed on Chapel Hill was approved at the planning stage in haste and under duress as central government was threatening to withdraw funding.
Surely with such a landmark structure, Kirklees should have insisted that due process was scrupulously followed?
The novelty of this monstrous concrete and glass cereal box building will soon fade and we’ll be left with a shabby, unloved eyesore, to join the rest of the architectural junk that so blights our skyline.
Chris Marsden said of this process, ‘some you win, some you lose’.
Well, we’ve badly lost this one and it’s a mighty kick in the teeth for good planning, design and due process.
The one positive that could come from this debacle is that Kirklees could provide free parking on the site of the old tech.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Uncle Grumpy
Golcar
Cloth of gold
LOOKING at the picture of the cloth with the jacquard writing on it ‘Huddersfield cloth for Zara’s Royal Wedding’ (Monday, July 4) brought back memories when Huddersfield cloth was recognised as the world’s best.
After the war and still under military contract having a surveyor’s qualification, I worked in Huddersfield as a pattern weaver on the most expensive cloth.
Some of the cloth was made for the American market and was valued up to £25 per yard at the time when flat textile weekly pay was under £4.
There were few Huddersfield companies without a full order book.
Huddersfield and the heavy woollen district – part of today’s Kirklees – were desperate for workers in that industry.
I am glad that Dugdale Bros and Co Ltd keep that tradition alive and I wish them further success.
Long live the logo of the old north ‘where’s muck there’s brass’.
Tony Sosna
Huddersfield
Communist taint
LEN Sandford is wrong to suggest (Mailbag, July 2) that May Day is tainted with communism and one party politics.
May Day had its origins in America and the workers campaign for the eight hour working day in that country.
May Day is now celebrated, apart from despotic countries, all around the world. If people want to believe in the myth of St George that’s up to them, but leave our May Day alone.
John Appleyard
Liversedge
More bank holidays
CONTRARY to Len Sandford’s assertions (Mailbag, July 2) May Day was the principal festival of the coming of summer for thousands of years before Communists tainted it with the brutal glorification of the violence and military parades.
And how long did the Communist empire last? A little over 70 years, hardly long enough to taint the festival to the degree to where it should be expunged from the calendar.
Funnily enough, both May Day and St George’s Day suffered the same fate under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell when all festivals were banned, including Christmas.
It was the staunch resistance to the banning of Christmas through riot and rebellion that led to it been easily revived, but May Day was not resuscitated until Labour Day was established in 1886 to celebrate the unity of working people and their struggle for better conditions and a better life, a good 30 years before the Bolsheviks turned it into a show of military and political might.
The main point about bank holidays is that Britain lags far behind other European countries and we need more not fewer bank holidays to catch up and improve the balance between work and life, responsibility and joy for all people.
As a non-Christian I have no particular interest in saints and cannot fathom the need for patriots to personalise the nation in the form of a saint.
St George is a double-edged sword. On the one hand he was revered as the saint of war, every bit as militaristic as the Soviet May Day parades, but on the other hand the fact that St George a mythical figure who was allegedly Turkish and imported into Britain by the French King Richard the Lion Heart stands as some testimony to the multiculturalism of the nation.
Ian Brooke
Save Our Services
Entertainment value
MY HUSBAND, who has dementia, has been in a Huddersfield care home for almost 18 months now. I visit him every other day and so have got to know many of the other patients also.
On Monday when I visited him, Dave and Kim Valentine were there entertaining. They were brilliant and clearly the patients thought so too as they were clapping and singing along and it was a pure joy to witness.
I would encourage anyone with free time and a talent to go into a care home for an hour or so and see for yourself the effects that this has. I can tell you from personal experience that it doesn’t only do the patients good, but the staff, the families and entertainers also.
My express thanks go to Dave and Kim Valentine, who not only entertained but interacted with the patients making them feel part of what was going on. It is appropriate to thank them especially as this week is Dementia Awareness Week, for taking the time to come to the home and give the patients a thoroughly enjoyable morning of entertainment.
Jean Bareham
Almondbury
Medical marvels
MY heartfelt thanks to the three paramedics who quickly arrived when my husband, Sidney, had a slight heart attack. The crew’s names were Peter, Michelle and Marcus who made my husband comfortable before he was taken up to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on Friday, June 24. I was greeted by the housekeeper Winnie who kindly made me a cup of hot sweet tea to calm me down as I was upset.
I want to thank the doctor and nurses in the A & E and the Coronary Care Unit, Ward 5 for the kind and caring attention my husband received on his four days stay. He is now home and slowly recovering.
Mrs June Newton
Newsome
