‘ONE rule for the rich’, all in this together (Mailbag, March 12).
MS of Shepley is unhappy that sales in the UK of high end cars have risen.
MS somehow blames Mr Cameron for this? If we are getting political I would say to MS that most of us under Blair/Brown could not afford the cars in question so why should things be any different now?
One way of making a difference to the prosperity of our country would be to start making a conscious effort to purchase British made goods.
We may not be able to purchase a Ferrari, Bentley or Rolls Royce but we can make a difference in our shopping trolley or bag.
It is about time we became more patriotic in our shopping habits.
Take a look as to where it was grown or manufactured/assembled.
We need to start supporting our home industries or we shall lose them forever.
Yes, you may pay a copper or two more but, hey, ho we keep our own in a job rather than paying out benefits which in the long run help no one.
R J Bray
Shelley
Charity not at Holme
WITH reference to Nick Lavigueur’s full-page feature on Monday headed ‘(Holme Valley) Parish Council ‘kept facts from public”, I must say that this charity is nothing to do with the administration of the Graveship of Holme.
And this is not the first time that what is now called Holme Valley Parish Council has set up a charity purporting to interfere with the affairs of the Graveship. It took me 20 years to kill off the previous one.
I told the council at the outset that they were wrong in thinking that there were 26 plots allocated under the Enclosure Act as quarries for the making and repairing of the public roads.
The true figure is 49 with a total area of 30 acres.
I also told the council that in my opinion they had no claim to these plots which were awarded to the Surveyors to the Highways of the seven townships of the Graveship.
However, as they were all (or almost all) disused, then as long as the money was used for some charitable purpose within the Graveship I said I would not object to their plans.
I offered to show them all the other 23 quarries which they did not know about.
In this case the two disputed areas of land featured in the article – Swindon Knowle and an area in Thurstonland – lie quite outside the Graveship of Holme as I would have told them if asked.
I still do not know to what charitable purposes the profits of this exercise (if any) are to be put.
Perhaps if I put in a Freedom of Information request ...?
Arthur Quarmby
Constable, Graveship of Holme
We need an LDF
AFTER a decade on the West Yorkshire CPRE Committee (Campaign to Protect Rural England) I have a personal take on the present Local Development Framework debate.
First, the blame for all this mess rests on successive governments which have failed to get a grip on population numbers, wasted several fortunes on absurd welfare benefits, operated border posts as useless as a leaky sieve and then shifted the responsibility to local communities for building three million new houses.
Second, we should stop being rude to councillors and planners who have the impossible task of obeying their masters in London and pleasing those of us who live in Kirklees.
You might not agree with everything your councillor says, but the ones I know personally are decent, well-intentioned human beings who would much prefer discussion to confrontation.
Third, it is probably better to have a Local Development Framework which you don’t like very much than to have no LDF at all.
Having no LDF would mean that developers would have a bonanza of every flat green site they could find which would be far more than the 20,000 already under fire.
Fourth, face up to the fact that builders, developers, land agents and the rest of their kind are in it for the money before they head to the Bahamas for retirement.
Offers to do anything to benefit the neighbourhood should be taken with a mountain of salt.
Fifth, there is rightly a lot of fuss about building on green belt, an obnoxious idea.
But remember that a far greater threat is building on green fields.
If the fields go, then so do our views, our country walk and our farming capacity.
Sixth, it is up to every citizen to keep an eye on what is planned for their own neighbourhood and then do something.
Don’t be put off by the insult of NIMBYism. Your backyard is everybody else’s backyard as well, if it is a green place of beauty.
For goodness’ sake join something or start a protest movement or write some letters.
In my 10 CPRE years I’ve heard dozens of grumbles, but no-one has ever asked me for a membership form to join CPRE.
Finally, I should make clear that this letter is written by me alone.
My gracious CPRE committee colleagues would have found much more polite ways of saying things!
S W Roebuck
CPRE WY Treasurer
Green belt threat
ON the very same day as the Labour/Lib-Dem element of Kirklees Council forced through the Local Development Framework (March 6) I was glad to see the Examiner’s story indicating green belt land in danger across Kirklees.
Labour and the Lib-Dems have always contended that there were no plans to do this, even stating it at the council’s extraordinary meeting.
But what the Examiner’s exposé details is green belt land all over Kirklees under future threat.
Labour and Lib-Dems may have done a damage limitation process prior to the May elections by only releasing green belt land in north Kirklees, but what happens after the elections and thereafter and what is to stop them starting the bandwagon rolling again?
The released plan clearly indicates 43 sites in south Kirklees under threat including seven sites for green belt building in the Colne Valley.
There is a serious intent here to build on green belt in the future, I would say, and the people of Kirklees should realise just what is going on here.
The Conservative Party and the Green Party were the only parties to vote against building on any green belt and where all other parties voted for building on green belt on March 6.
David Hill
Conservative Candidate for Colne Valley
Tough on dog owners
WE are told that tough new measures could be brought in on dogs within a few weeks’ time. Why not now?
Also dog licences should be brought back, this time to £100 a year. This would cut down the population of dogs, but those not to come under this ruling should be police dogs, farm dogs and dogs for the disabled.
All other dogs should be trained to use their owners’ gardens and bin it before taking them our for exercise.
All fines should hit the roof if owners are caught breaking the law.
H Barrowclough
Waterloo
Well done Darren
WELL done to Darren Baker for raising £28,000 for the Prince’s T rust charity and for being made the official artist of the London Olympics this year.
I have been following his career since seeing him exhibiting two pictures in Holmfirth’s Art Exhibition when he had just finished art college. If he has a fan club I would be his number one fan.
I am really proud of him, a young local man, such a brilliant artist. He deserves all the credit he gets. He has done so well and long may he continue to do so. Let’s hope he will get more commissions from the Royal Family.
Mrs Christine Pearcy
Huddersfield
The ‘grey’ pound
SINCE reading the piece by Denis Kilcommons about cancelling free bus passes for the elderly – a move with which Denis disagrees – I have taken notice of which social group is predominantly patronising the shops, cafes, restaurants, garden centres in our area.
The answer is pensioners. All spending money. Some traders will have no customers and suffer losses if the bus passes are cancelled.
A McGrath
Salendine Nook
Tax loopholes
WHEN the Budget is announced on March 21 we will all be asked to make sacrifices in order to deal with our economic problems.
At the same time many multinational companies continue to avoid billions in taxes every year. In spite of tough talk on cracking down on tax dodging, the Government is planning on opening a new tax loophole which will make it easier for multinationals to avoid paying their bills around the world.
ActionAid estimates that developing countries could lose £4 billion, money urgently needed to fight poverty, while the Treasury’s own figures show the UK will lose £1 billion a year. When companies dodge taxes it is ordinary people in the UK, and around the world, who pick up the bill.
When these changes are debated in parliament, I’m calling on our MPs to make sure the government urgently rethinks its plans.
Kenn Winter
Huddersfield
