REGARDING Kirklees College’s right to use marketing budget (Examiner 19 and 20 May).

Congratulations to the councillors Firth and Smith for trying to pour cold water on one of the greatest achievements in the town for many years.

While no-one wishes for people to lose their jobs, it is farcical that some of the town’s elder statesmen and women should be highlighting an amazing piece of marketing opportunity to expose their own inadequacies?

I bet the principles of Greenhead College and Huddersfield New College were wishing that their name was being promoted for the play-off finals for over four hours on prime time TV.

The final two hours to be broadcast to 75 countries with a potential audience of 221m viewers – all for £75,000.

The college applications this year are 1,000 better than in previous years and with every student being worth cash to the college, I am sure that some of those 50 who are to lose their jobs will soon be reappointed.

Why in this country are we so quick to launch into criticism rather than celebrate success.

Huddersfield Town and the Giants are the biggest promotional assets this town has apart from the fantastic stadium (did the council support that or am I dreaming?). A stadium that is known worldwide because of the prestige it brings to the town.

Multi-national companies would pay far more than this for time slots on national TV and still not have the advantage of seeing every national newspaper cover the story. Kirklees College on the shirts of the team – brilliant.

The management of the college and Huddersfield Town Football Club should be congratulated for such an innovative use of branding because they will be around a long time after councillors Smith and Firth have been awarded their marketing degrees!

Ian Kendall

Mirfield

Sad to see nursery axed

First Class Nursery which is part of Kirklees College was judged by Ofsted to be ‘good to outstanding’.

This contrasts sharply with the College whose overall judgement was ‘inadequate’. Now they are thinking about closing the nursery unless a rescue package can be found.

Nursery staff are amazing, the dedication and care given is exemplary. My three children loved every minute and have fond memories of the experienced and long-serving staff.

The college must think again and look to trimming other spending and do everything they can to retain this beacon of good practice.

The new Principal must make it his first priority to reconsider this rash plan and to save this wonderful nursery.

Stephen Garside

Golcar

MPs losing respect

ANDREA Gill from Colne Valley Lib Dems writes in defence of David Laws.

In doing so, she graphically illustrates the other points I made in my letter. Politicians view and judge themselves by standards which are far lower than the majority of the public have a right to expect of them.

The vast majority of us couldn’t care less nowadays about the sexual preferences of the politicians we vote for. What is far more important to us is the way they carry out their duties and the amount of notice they take of our views.

Our first priority is we expect them to be honest and trustworthy.

Parliament, the Standards Committee and MPs themselves are directly responsible for the total lack of public respect and trust we now have in them collectively.

I would remind her that 52% of the electorate did not consider that they could see anything or anyone on offer at the last election which they thought worth voting for.

The facts as I see them are that public trust, respect and confidence in MPs are at an all-time low, a fact backed up by falling support at the polling booths.

This is disastrous for the country. As MPs are fond of saying, “the truth is” that only they, Parliament and the Standards committee can reverse this situation and they need to reconnect with the electorate and repair and restore their reputations.

David Laws may have regretted his actions and sought to remedy his “naive and clumsy” actions, but the fact that he has repaid the money he acquired cannot disguise the fact that he chose to break the regulations in regard to his expenses and by doing so, in my opinion, revealed himself as untrustworthy.

Our prisons are full of people who would like the opportunity to rewind the clock, undo the actions which resulted in their being caught and put them in jail and then carry on as if nothing had happened.

It is quite obvious that MPs and their supporters think that rules don’t apply to them and that they are a special case.

Given their recent outpourings and unstinting support for anyone of their number who falls short of an acceptable level to the public, the chances of any improvement appear very minimal.

John Langford

Lepton

Abusing his position?

COUNCIL officers have a duty to undertake their work diligently and lawfully. No councillor, whether he is Mehboob Khan or any other, should be putting pressure on an officer to do otherwise.

Anyway, the Freedom of Information officer should be taking instructions from his/her line manager, not from a councillor. Why was the officer concerned reporting to a councillor?

Policies and practices are determined by the councillors and the executive officers. Officers below this are merely responsible for carrying out these objectives.

For a councillor to put pressure to do otherwise than what is council policy and the law is abusing his position.

Aisha Rawat

Batley

Petty-minded politics

HOW petty of James Taylor, a Conservative election agent, to try to make political capital out of the small delay in removing Karen Rowling’s election posters in Mirfield!

The Conservative’s election posters were larger than specified by Kirklees Council. I could have made a public issue out of it but I hope I am not so small-minded. I mention it now, only to caution Mr Taylor that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

The real election question was the choice between different parties candidates.

The Conservatives held on to the Mirfield seat, but across the whole council area labour was given well over 12,000 votes more than the Conservatives and it won three extra seats.

Labour is clearly best qualified to lead Kirklees Council.

It would be in Mirfield’s interests to have a voice at that top table instead of all its representatives being part of the Conservative opposition.

Michael Hutchinson

Labour Election Agent for Mirfield

No barbecues in park

IN response to G B letter (May 19) ‘Given A Roasting’ I can certainly say to you that the sun has certainly not gone to my head.

Greenhead Park is a public amenity. Fying a kite, using the paddling pool and similar activities are all acceptable but in my view setting a barbecue up in an undesignated area is certainly not.

If someone set one up near where I happened to be sitting am I supposed to up sticks to avoid drifting smoke?

No GB, too many people these days think they have the right to anything, they like, for example, abusing alcohol in public places, riding cycles on public footpaths etc.

I come from a generation raised to respect authority and consider the well being of others.

You may call me a killjoy, but I call it having principles and also I am not a vegetarian.

Anthony Smith

Huddersfield

Tough times for market

WHAT is happening at Queensgate Market Hall?

Yesterday I went to get a sandwich from Masons only to find it has shut down and today I went to a butchers on the top side of the market to find that has also disappeared.

If you go into the market through the first arcade all the units except the newsagents are boarded up or empty and there are also numerous empty units in the market itself.

Is this just a sign of difficult economic conditions or could it be that the rents are too high?

It just seems a shame that so many small local businesses seem to be closing down and all the empty units do give the impression that the market hall as a whole is not the force it used to be only a relatively short time ago.

Can’t something be done to restore the market hall to full occupation? People are concerned that the new Tesco and such like will kill trading in the town centre, yet small market stalls are not encouraged to remain in business.

L Harding

Golcar

Do you speak the lingo?

OUR multicultural society never ceases to amaze me.

I parked today in Tesco and walked into town to go to the bank.

On my way back at the bottom of the stairs leading to the open market as usual there was a begger asking for change for a hot meal/drink. As I approached him we made eye contact and he looked at me and said “do you speak English?’’ This obviously caught me on the back foot as I actually said ‘yes’ and gave him a pound.

incredulous

Lindley