FOR David Hill (Mailbag, March 14) to assert that after the elections green belt land might once again be under threat is at best just plain scaremongering.
Otherwise it demonstrates a singular and complete lack of understanding about the purpose of the Local Development Framework (LDF).
The LDF is about planning for the future. It has been a long exhausting process but necessary to ensure the needs of business and industry, housing and quality of life for residents is matched and balanced for the foreseeable future.
Having reached the position where a plan has been agreed, the council now has a mechanism to resist unfettered development throughout Kirklees.
The Conservative-led government proposes that where no local development framework is in place there should be a predisposition for planning decisions to be in favour of development.
This would mean that the council would find it much more difficult to control the development of housing or industry on sites that residents would find unacceptable while ensuring that there is enough land set aside for the needs of future housing and commerce.
With the LDF in place the council now has a plan identifying what land is considered fit for which particular purpose and that plan will remain in force for the foreseeable future.
What would be the point of expending so much time, energy and cost in putting together a plan for the future just for it to be overturned a couple of months down the line?
Might I finally point out something else that David Hill should have known. The green belt sites quoted in the Examiner were not even being considered on March 6 which makes his whole argument completely erroneous.
Clr Peter McBride
Labour, Dalton; Cabinet Member for Regeneration
Petty politics
IT is sad to see the campaign against the LDF descend into a political bun fight between various groups of politicians and equally sad that the campaign would compromise its independence by backing Tory candidates at the local elections.
I am sure that if Tory councillors were in power in Kirklees it would be they, not Labour, who would be pushing through their own government’s agenda when it comes to housing.
Ian P Brooke
Huddersfield
Clayton Fields
CONGRATULATIONS to all concerned for their hard work and dedication in getting Clayton Fields restored to our village green.
I am amazed by Paddico’s comment on asking us not to use it yet until the judgement is passed by the House of Lords.
Did they show any restraint from pulling up the metal fence, digging up the ground and destroying a memorial bench while the decision was being made? I think not.
As the judgement came on the same day as three of our brave soldiers died, could we now call it Clayton Memorial Fields and keep it as a place of peace and beauty in their memory?
A BRADBURY
Birkby
Amazing park
I WAS born and bred in Huddersfield and now I’m a frequent visitor from my home in the South of England.
I had heard about the refurbishment of Greenhead Park so I looked in last Saturday. What an amazing restoration!
The paddling pool, bandstand, lake, gardens, railings, gates, conservatory – the list goes on and on.
Just one issue – I would have put the new children’s play area in the general recreation sector rather than on the drive leading up to the War Memorial.
As I drove by on the following Sunday morning the park was packed with happy people.
Money well spent and congratulations to all concerned.
Hopefully Ravensknowle Park next – my old stamping ground.
Alan Roberts
Billericay, Essex
Spending priorities
RECENTLY we have had the spectacle of local councillors shaking their heads at the lack of funding for their various pet projects.
If one looks at the Huddersfield Area Committee plans one would find this hard to believe.
Local communities have been told there is no money for keeping public libraries and public toilets open. Surely these are amenities we cannot do without?
However, Almondbury High School may get £33,000 for a project to improve the morale of children at their school.
It is intended to make them look further than the horizon and to look at further education as a way out of their present existence.
As a teacher myself I do not want to be branded a philistine but, at a time of stringent savings, is this just a bit extravagant?
Surely the aims of the project should be the aim of all schools who, unlike Almondbury, will not have a dollop of cash given extra to fund it?
Bernard McGuin
Marsh
In Barry’s defence
I’M sure that Barry Gibson does not need me to leap to his defence in the saga of his attempted intimidation by Clrs Kath Pinnock and David Sheard at the recent LDF council meeting – but I will anyway.
What the whole sorry tale reveals is that our councillors have shown that they did not understand what he had written in his article about the revelation of the very real possibility of 64 green belt sites being earmarked in the LDF for development.
They did not comprehend the detail of his article that was written in reader friendly prose.
If they have difficulty understanding such an article how can they cope with the more demanding details of the LDF?
This shows clearly what I have long suspected and that is that those protesting against the Kirklees LDF have a better understanding than those councillors who voted in favour of it!
I wonder what they expected him to do.
Trevor Woolley
Linthwaite
Selling us out
YET another British citizen is extradited to the USA, seemingly at the drop of a hat, to face criminal charges that have yet to be proved.
How is it that the Muslim cleric Abu Hamza has not been extradited?
I have come to the conclusion that there isn’t a single MP in Parliament with the guts to speak out or, indeed, who cares about this country’s citizens.
One whimper from the French poodle and German dachshund and a growl from the American pitbull and the once proud British bulldog rolls over and obliges.
The dead of two world wars must be turning in their graves.
PAUL WOOLLEY
Botham Hall
Privatisation folly
THE Examiner headline story on March 14 about Yorkshire Water’s ‘Money down the drain in bills mix-up’ does not surprise me.
I believe the reason goes back for most of it to privatisation of the utilities by the Conservatives.
At two different properties I have lived at, not in Yorkshire, no-one knew where my main incoming water pipe was in the street.
In one instance they had to find an old plumber in the water company who was still about to tell them where it was.
The main reason for this is the managers in charge had failed to pass on the maps and charts of the underground pipes and drains to the different new companies in their areas now running the water supplies and drainage.
Thus the companies had no real idea of what was where, except for the fairly new ones.
This was the same for gas and electricity.
BT’s monopoly was perpetuated. They had all the lines anyway for telephones and still monopolise it now.
Most companies are now inefficient private companies making huge profits instead of inefficient public companies where at least in theory the money went back to the taxpayer and some was invested in new equipment.
Now the shareholders take the money including taxpayer subsidies, in dividends, and not enough is spent on the infrastructure of the businesses.
Martin Fletcher
Emley
Parking madness
HAS common sense gone completely out of the window?
My wife was victim of the nonsensical and extremely confusing parking arrangements in notorious Cloth Hall Street.
She parked under the watchful eye of a traffic warden who watched as she went to a ticket machine, bought a ticket, returned to the car, put the ticket on and went about her business.
When she returned she had been issued a ticket.
The car was parked in a loading area which, of course, we agree is not for ticket parking – but why didn’t the warden do the right thing and tell my wife that it wasn’t a parking area?
The parking areas are quite confusing at the best of times and in my opinion the meter tickets are totally overpriced.
This particular loading area was subject to a Examiner article last week titled ‘Is this the most confusing parking space in town?’
We now know why.
Nathan Clay
Huddersfield
