LOCAL residents who are opposed to the current Local Development Framework which advocates building on the green belt come from a wide variety of political views, including those who regularly vote New Labour, Conservative, Liberal-Democrat, Socialist, Green, UKIP, Independent and so on, as well as those who change their minds or have no political allegiance.
I am delighted that Denby Dale Labour Party opposes, for instance, the proposal to build industrial warehouses on 15 hectares of Clayton West green belt.
Recent correspondence about campaigns to protect the Kirklees landscape and tourist industry being a ‘Conservative Front’ is misleading.
Most local campaigns are happy to support any candidate who will clearly state that they would protect all the green belt.
Sadly, so far, it is mainly Kirklees Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors who wish to plan for building on green belt.
If local Labour Party (or Liberal Democrat) groups can persuade their councillors to amend their decision then they will find that those parties will garner support from environmental campaigners – and not just the Conservative and Green candidates who have clearly said they will protect the green belt.
As someone who happens to believe in the nationalisation of transport, major industry, social housing, finance – the public ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange – I find it rather amusing and bizarre to be thought of as part of a ‘Conservative Front’ just because I wish to protect our green landscape!
I am very happy to work with politicians of all colours, towards the same goals.
If the Conservatives and the Greens on this issue are right, then they deserve support.
I try not to judge a politician by the colour of their rosette, but by what they say backed up by their actions.
We should not be so ‘tribal’ about politics.
Philip Reynolds, Parish priest of St Aidan, Skelmanthorpe
Keep Our Rural Spaces
Greenfield and green belt
DAVID Hill’s letter (Mailbag, March 14) was crammed full of inaccuracies.
The Liberal Democrats have accepted the release of green belt land in the Dewsbury area to encourage inward investment of £600m.
Dr Hill, according to his website, is also willing to seek development for jobs but in the green fields of Lincolnshire. Why Lincolnshire? Do we not need jobs in Kirklees?
The LDF has been agreed and the only green belt to change are three sites. Dr Hill continues to confuse green belt with greenfield sites.
The glaring omission from Dr Hill’s letter is the list of greenfield sites that the Tories have earmarked for development.
They state that they will not develop any green belt land and that brownfield land should be retained for business and industrial development.
The only other land, therefore, that can be used for housing is greenfield. So where are the sites?
A carefully considered release of green belt land in the Dewsbury area does not equate to a general release of green belt throughout Kirklees.
In the same Mailbag edition there was an interesting and well-balanced letter from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
In drawing the difference between green belt and greenfield, Mr Roebuck well makes the point that green belt development is obnoxious, but ‘if the fields go, then so do our views, our country walks and our farming capacity.’
David Ridgway
Lib Dem candidate, Colne Valley
Balancing it up
AFTER much contemplation I think I can offer a solution to the ‘problem’ of women’s pay averaging 10% less than men’s.
Mercer is one of the foremost employee benefit consultants so I see no reason to doubt their assessment that the differential is caused by many women choosing to take a part time role through family responsibility.
It would appear there are two options. The first would be to start all career executive women on a fast track basis.
In the armed services, for example, they would start in the army as captains, the Royal Air Force as flight lieutenants and in the Navy as lieutenant commanders.
In nursing they would skip student nurse and go straight to staff nurse and in banks they could come in as assistant branch manager.
In retailing they could advance to store manager on day one so later in life they would find the men only just catching up at senior area manager level.
Should we have a 40% female, 60% male quota system for board members they could, of course, take 15 years off in the middle of their careers but still take a seat on the board.
The second option is to insist, perhaps using an EU directive, that at least 45% of the male population have babies as soon as the technology becomes available.
Godfrey Bloom MEP
Women’s Gender & Equality Committee in the European Parliament
Out of Afghanistan
THE truth often hurts so they say but to ignore the truth will cut deeper in due course.
I am referring to the deaths of British soldiers during the past few decades while deployed by our inept ruling elite who, at this point in history, should have learned the lesson as to who not to choose as adversaries.
It is impossible to win hearts and minds of long established dogmas.
They possess an indelible set of codes which are non-negotiable and quite different to the scourge ideologies which were conceived and mainly destroyed within a century.
It is not a matter of should British soldiers be pulled out of Afghanistan, the question is why were they sent there in the first place to a dogmatic, tribal and independent country which, since 1919, has fought many wars against those who would subjugate them.
They have to seek their own destiny, not have it imposed on them. That destiny is far and away different than is perceived by our democratic standards.
Rules of democracy have got to be secular or democracy is non-existent.
LEN SANDFORD
Lepton
We need real people
IT is £11 more expensive to get a birth or death certificate in Kirklees than it is in a neighbouring authority.Why?
I had reason to apply for a birth certificate at Kirklees registration office.
Not only was there a big and inexplicable difference between the price of birth and death certificates, there was, more surprisingly, a substantial difference between two local authorities.
While on the phone to Kirklees I had to listen to recorded messages, pressing many different digits to access the right person and this at the cost of my extended phone call.
Checking the price with a neighbouring authority I was talking to the voice of a real person who dealt with my enquiry in seconds.
Clearly the metal mickey within the Kirklees office is more expensive than a real employee of our neighbouring authority.
The metal mickey should be weighed in at the nearest scrapyard and a real and much-needed job put in its place.
This would return Kirklees to a much more friendly relationship with its customers.
R Dobson
Mirfield
The 50p debate
THE proposal by Conservatives to cut the 50p tax rate for high earners can only be described as obscene.
While public services are slashed and benefits for the vulnerable are cut we now have the ‘we’re all in it together’ government considering making the rich, richer. Quite unbelievable.
At what point does a Liberal Democrat with an ounce of decency say, ‘Enough is Enough’ and quits the Party/Government.
What is the point of a Party which has claims to be progressive being part of a government which allows this sort of blatant injustice which further divides society.
If the government were trying to create the conditions for more social unrest this is exactly the sort of policy you would promote.
Councillor Andrew Cooper
Green Party Group Leader, Kirklees Council
A wealth of talent
MY wife and I attended the Music for Stage and Screen concert at the Town Hall on Saturday organised by the Soroptimist International of Huddersfield not quite knowing what to expect.
We never imagined we would be so superbly entertained by young musicians and singers who achieved an astonishingly high standard of performance.
Congratulations to the Lindley Junior School choir, the Kirklees Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Kirklees Schools String Orchestra, the Dewsbury/Mirfield Music Centre Swing Band and the young singers of the group, ReJoy Sing.
The wealth of talent on offer was truly amazing and awe inspiring.
To maintain this kind of standard it is vitally important that our schools take advantage of the money made available to them by the Government for music making.
Ofsted, which carries out regular inspections of our schools, is concerned that too many of them have the arts, including singing and playing of instruments, as an added-on to the curriculum instead of making them an important part of it.
Stanley Solomons
Cowcliffe
