I WISH to express my deep concern and anger at the proposal of plans that Kirklees Council have in the pipe line for the villages of Skelmanthorpe, Scissett, Clayton West, Denby Dale and Upper and Lower Cumberworth.

Additional houses, offices, warehouse and industrial units all on green belt land. Enough is enough. We have chosen to live in the countryside not a town.

Countryside means having green belt land with footpaths and space to enjoy either by walking or looking at.

By building new homes this brings new families all using facilities that are over stretched like doctors, schools, dentists. It also increases the traffic. Wakefield Road is like the M1 already.

Scissett has already seen an increase in housing which was fought against but was given the go-ahead.

This has changed the beautiful landscape of the area. It has brought a junction by Scissett baths into a major road way.

The people who are responsible for passing this type of project wouldn’t want it on their doorsteps. Well keep off ours too.

Clayton West and Scissett are already merged together on Wakefield Road losing the village appeal.

We want our villages kept as villages not towns. I object strongly to these proposals and intend to let my feelings know here in the letter and at the march this Saturday at St George’s Square, Huddersfield.

Lorraine Gummerson

Skelmanthorpe

Countryside view

I AM writing with regard to the Kirklees Long Term Development Plan for our area.

Four years ago we moved from Soothill, in Batley, to Lower Cumberworth.

The reason for the move was that our old house overlooked the Grange Valley, a green belt area. On this green belt site, Kirklees Council allowed the building of a housing estate on our side of the valley, but much worse, they allowed the building of an industrial estate on the other side, thereby destroying the countryside.

We moved here to get away from Kirklees development and out into the countryside.

At our old address the traffic was horrendous at peak times.

Here, the only delays are getting caught behind a herd of cows moving from the milking parlour to their field. This minor inconvenience is a very small price to pay to live in such a beautiful part of Yorkshire.

Why doesn’t the council demolish all the derelict and disused mills in the borough and develop these sites before destroying the countryside?

There is a vast area of such properties in the Heckmondwike, Batley, Dewsbury and Ravensthorpe corridor. I am sure that there must be many other such areas in the borough.

I hope that the council will see the error in their ways and find a sensible solution to their problem.

Jack Craven

Upper Cumberworth

Time for traffic rethink?

KIRKLEES Highways Department are, in my view, wholly responsible for the permanent gridlock around town.

In a recent discussion on Radio Two, Huddersfield was described as ‘the traffic light centre of Britain’.

The proliferation of traffic lights, mini-roundabouts, bus pull-outs (what on earth was wrong with bus pull-ins and lay-bys?) chevrons and public refuges has reduced the arterials to a trickle.

Virtually no-one walks any more yet footways are widened.

In a one-and-a-half mile stretch up and down Newsome Hill there are no fewer than 22 bus-stops. Some are less than 100 metres apart! I suggest this is far too many.

New Hey Road and Leeds Road are wide enough for two lanes in each direction yet the council purposely narrows and slows them to one lane.

In Manchester the main arterials were widened over time and fencing put along the edge of the footways to protect pedestrians. It works perfectly.

Then there are the interminable roadworks.

A single pedestrian crossing at Moldgreen has just taken over a year to complete. These works often reduced Wakefield Road to one lane for hours on end.

Why did men come and go over such a long period? On one Sunday I counted eight workers with eight vans and wagons blocking the road.

Finally, why the obsession with cycle lanes in one of Britain’s hilliest, windiest and wettest towns?

My two favourites are the one along Cross Church Street which used to go against traffic flow (on a one-way street) and the pointless one that runs beside the railway arches (next to Tesco) and leads to a dead end.

Highways policy is in need of a drastic rethink.

Ron Kitchen

Honley

Word on the Street

ONCE again Kirklees Council throw up ambiguous nonsensical smoke screens to justify their actions.

They are saying that the removal of restrictions for parking in Great Northern Street will be a costly legal process.

It will cost nothing just take down the signs and allow parking.

They also say that it would not make the road any safer or more dangerous, and they go on to say that there are no highway safety issues at the location, therefore how can their justification that the restrictions were implemented on the ground of traffic management and highway safety be valid?

Many businesses in Kirklees are struggling at the moment including Kirklees Council.

I tend to agree with Mr Simon Chapman (Examiner, February 27). It would seem Kirklees Council don’t want to help businesses in the area and appear to work against them.

In Kirklees, thousands of vehicles park illegally daily on footpaths, block bus stops and obstruct junctions where they create many highway safety issues and traffic management problems – but Kirklees Council do nothing about them.

Great Northern Street in the council’s own words ‘is not a road safety issue’ – but it is a cash cow for the council, as is Cloth Hall Street.

David Townend

Linthwaite

Town centre makeover

HOW committed are Kirklees Council to improving Huddersfield town centre?

In January this year they announced that £140,000 would be spent improving part of Blacker Road, Birkby, £48,000 on improvements in Thornhill Lees and £30,000 on improving Huddersfield town centre.

Recently a grant of £40,000 was given by Kirklees Council to help refurbish King’s Head Gardens, Holmfirth.

Looking at these figures the council must think the town centre requires little or no improvement.

The revamp/makeover on the pedestrian area of New Street between Ramsden Street and Chapel Hill makes no mention of the Kirklees-owned neglected and rundown outside urinal, the old Co-op building, which shoppers, workers, visitors and Kirklees college students will have to pass crossing to and from Chapel Hill.

Also will the makeover include replacing the numerous tarmac repairs and broken paving slabs/flags with granite setts and paving slabs/flags as originally constructed or will the area eventually resemble Nelson Mandela corner? Is the cost of the makeover part of the £30,000 mentioned above, or extra funding?

MG

Crosland Moor

Parking money

THE cuts in Kirklees Council’s budget are going to affect many people’s lives, many of them people who work for Kirklees.

But there are areas in which Kirklees can make money and save jobs.

One way is to place pay and display parking meters around Greenhead Park and other streets near the town centre.

Many people who use these parking spaces work in the town centre and park free all day, yet they are the people who are bemoaning the cuts.

Manjit Singh

Birkby

Thanks for kindness

I’M WRITING this in the hope that the kind person who found my purse at the entrance to The Key’s restaurant on Shrove Tuesday, reads the Examiner.

I’m unable to find out who you are, but I really wish to thank you most sincerely for going to the trouble of taking it to Lloyds Bank. Thank you so much for your kindness.

L Harrison

Longwood

Dodgers’ winning run

I HAD the great pleasure of attending this year’s annual production performed by the Yorkshire Avalanche Dodgers in Marsden last week. It was entitled Wind Up The Willows.

I have watched other productions in previous years and they have never been anything other than thoroughly entertaining and very amusing.

This year’s production was no exception. There is something of the old music hall about them. Good old fashioned live entertainment. Clearly a great deal of effort is put in to these productions.

They run for over a week and all the money raised goes to charity. The shows are a total sell out every year. Thankfully I know someone who can get me a ticket. Well done to all those involved and long may it continue.

Liam McParland

Crosland Moor