LIKE many other Slaithwaite residents I feel there are questions that need to be answered about future developments in the village.

The proposed Colne Valley Mill site which Aldi are seeking planning permission for is just the beginning. There are additional proposals to develop the Globe Mill site.

The question that hasn’t been addressed is how are the planners going to ensure sustainable development?

Michael Blake has chaired a Renaissance meeting to listen to residents’ concerns. It appears that Aldi are expecting as many as 80 vehicles entering and leaving the car park.

If you factor in the parking needs of up to 300 new IT staff at the Globe Mill then a picture of considerable challenge emerges with regard to the increased volume of traffic on Slaithwaite’s roads.

Is it time to look again at previously shelved plans to build a heavy vehicle road link to the A62?

Jim Park

Slaithwaite

Food standards

IT WOULD appear that Richard Huddleston (Letters, February 25) labels people who don’t shop at Aldi as “food snobs”.

Well I prefer to shop at Morrisons or the local farm shop so I guess that makes me a food snob.

I try to be careful and only purchase fresh food from sources where I know animals have been reared in humane conditions and then slaughtered and prepared in this country.

The government is unable to do anything about whether or not animals overseas are reared and slaughtered humanely but we can by boycotting these foreign products.

A large proportion of Aldi products, I suspect, are imported. Do we really want this in our village?

Anthony Lockwood

West Slaithwaite

Taking a view

CAN ANYONE take the Liberal Democrats seriously when they change their stance on a key local issue in a matter of days?

In the Examiner (February 18) Clr David Ridgway was welcoming the proposed supermarket in Slaithwaite and was quoted as saying “If a supermarket chain has the capital to regenerate an area why should we turn our noses up at that?”

Then on February 22 a letter appeared from Clr Ridgway and his Liberal Democrat colleague Clr Nicola Turner saying that “the Liberal Democrat policy over the two separate proposed Slaithwaite developments is to listen.”

Sorry, but you can’t welcome a development one day and then four days later say that you don’t have a policy and want to ‘listen’.

The local Labour Party view is to take a very hard look at the proposed supermarket development in Slaithwaite, whilst broadly welcoming the Globe Mill development.

This is providing the developers stick to their commitment to work with local business and the wider community.

Supporting the growth of creative businesses, including retail, in the mill and the creation of good quality employment for local people is a key priority.

The supermarket proposal is a different kettle of fish altogether and runs the risk of undermining existing businesses in the village and creating intolerable traffic problems.

You can ‘listen’ all you like – and people will have different views – but these are the realities behind the supermarket proposal.

So when the Liberal Democrats have ‘listened’ we look forward to them making their minds up on these key issues for our community.

Thelma Walker

Colne Valley Ward Labour Party

Australian connections

IT WAS interesting to read of Professor Paul Ward’s research into Adelaide’s immigration project (Examiner, February 2).

On researching my family history on my late mother’s side I discovered that my great great great grandfather John Hollingworth sailed to Adelaide from Liverpool in 1855 along with his wife Sarah, cousin Allen and his wife Mary and infant child Ada Ann.

Both were joiners who learnt their trade in the family joiner businesses in the Holme Valley.

On further research it appeared they were going to join other relatives who had already established themselves there.

Adelaide was a growing port at that time and was advertising in the area for tradesmen to help with the construction. There were many people from the Huddersfield/Holme Valley area that went to Adelaide in search of a new and better life.

Sadly John died in 1859 not long after his arrival and his young son Fred (my great great grandfather) and his mother Sarah had returned to England by 1861.

Allen, on the other hand stayed and had 12 children who went on to populate the many Hollingworth families in Australia.

I am sure there are many people in Huddersfield and Holmfirth that have similar stories.

Joyce M Jones

New Mill

Colour of music

IT WAS interesting to read (Examiner February 23) that the old ABC cinema Wurlitzer organ pipes are to get a new lease of life in the Blackpool Winter Gardens.

The ABC opened as the Ritz in February 1936 with seating for over 2000 and closed as the ABC in March 1983.

In his 1953 book, The Mighty Screen, the late Stanley Chadwick stated that the cinema had cost £100,000 to build and equip, while £10,000 of that had been for the organ alone – the equivalent of well over half a million pounds in today's money!

I well remember being taken by my parents to the Ritz, as a young child in the 1940s, and being fascinated by this wondrous machine with constantly changing colours seemingly rising out of nowhere. Ah, those were the days!

Dave Whitworth

Mount

Holed up in Holmfirth

POTHOLES are in the news. The Examiner is reporting regularly on new ones.

Has anyone seen the “beauties” in the drive up to Holme Valley Memorial Hospital and the White Rose Care home recently? If you don't need the hospital, then your car certainly will if you hit one of these!

Last time I saw them, someone had sprinkled a few pebbles into the largest one (which looked as though the recent asteroid near miss hadn't really been a near miss at all!) Surely this couldn’t have been a council repair?

Valerie Barnes

Holmfirth