TWO subjects: Castle Hall School and postal workers.

That school must not close. Most of those young people live locally to their place of education, have formed bonds with friends and staff and to ruin that kind of trust is ludicrous.

Have Kirklees Council lost their marbles (that’s if they had any to start with)? In modern times we like to keep our children safe and not to send them to a remote unfamiliar location away from family and schoolfriends.

Pack it in Kirklees, what do you think we pay you for? Protecting and educating our kids should be paramount.

Postal dispute. I live at the top of Weather Hill and, due to the recent snow, the bus service stopped, schools closed, people could not get to work, the gritters did not arrive for 24 hours. But our postman delivered the mail as usual.

Royal Mail wants efficiency, well, they already have it and they should be grateful.

GARY MALLINSON

Birchencliffe

Blow to democracy

IN a week where the national media spotlight has been focused on children not being allocated their school of choice, Kirklees Council has announced their proposal to close Castle Hall School.

By limiting the choice to Mirfield Free Grammar, they have assured Kirklees will be beyond future criticism in this regard.

If the proposed closure goes ahead, my two eldest children will see out much of their secondary education at a doomed school.

While I have nothing but admiration and respect for the work of Mr. Andy Pugh and his staff, it is obvious that retaining the best teachers and maintaining morale will be difficult, if not impossible.

My youngest daughter will have to go to M.F.G, being educated on a building site whilst the proposed enlargement takes place.

It would appear that the new Labour/Lib Dem administration has completely ignored the previous (costly) consultation exercise.

Not only does that disappoint me as a parent, it also shows complete contempt for the democratic process.

Last year, my eldest daughter went on a school trip with Castle Hall to World War One battlefields and Menin Gate in Ypres.

They learned about the lost generation who gave their lives so that freedom and democracy would prevail.

Does democracy still prevail? Are we to create another lost generation, whose opportunities in life are blighted by disrupted education?

STUART PEACE

Closure no good

AS an ex-member of Castle Hall School, I was veryŠdisappointed to hear it is closing.

The report says, “There is an urgent need to significantlyŠimproveŠeducational opportunities and achievements of all our children and young people.”

They’reŠnot going to achieve that by closing down one of the bestŠschoolsŠin Mirfield.

It’s not good for the kids.Š

PHIL DEARMAN

Parking ‘jobsworths’

ONCE again the officials of our glorious council strike out.

This time the victim of their wrath is the owner of a disability scooter which broke down stranding the poor chap, fortunately within sight of home.

Within minutes a Kirklees jobsworth was on the scene to issue a ticket.

Readers take note, these little ferrets are not traffic wardens but parking wardens. The difference?

They ride around in Kirklees vans issuing tickets to vehicles parked causing a ‘nuisance’.

Three weeks ago, a colleague and I were working in Wellington Street distributing leaflets.

Upon our arrival, we asked the driver of a lurking Kirklees van if we were ok to park for a few minutes whilst delivering.

We were assured that this would be fine, so long as we displayed a leaflet in the car for identification.

We parked further up the street and I began delivering. As I went round the corner out of sight, said van drove up behind my car and out steps Kirklees warden to issue a ticket.

As he approached with his little electronic notebook at the ready, my colleague popped up in the driver’s seat,Šstarted the engine and drove off.

His face was a picture, until I appeared to ask what he was playing at, to which he replied sheepishly, ‘I was just checking it were your car’.

Please Kirklees, if you are going to prey on helpless disabled old people and empty cars, at least have the decency to stop the LGAŠ Chairman Margaret Eaton (Examiner,ŠMarch 4) bleating that paying staff their piffling £51 per annum rise will mean job losses.

Pay it out of the parking tickets issued by ferret and weasel in their little white van. At least Dick Turpin used a blindfold.

GRAHAM POTTS

Cowlersley

Thank you

COULD I, through your letters page, thank the couple who handed my purse in at the Merry England in the market.

I would have thanked them personally, but they gave no address.

CHRISTINE IREDALE

Milnsbridge

Closure a bad idea

IT is sad that the council is proposing to close the Tourist Information Centre on Albion Street.

It is very convenient and easily accessible with an attractive window display and with helpful staff.

To split the services between the town hall and library will not be a good idea. The flight of steps to the library can be daunting even to able-bodied people.

If the same staff are being employed, what amount of savings can be made to justify closure?

New counters, shelves, etc will have to be provided at an alternative venue and not knowing where to go for tourist information or theatre bookings will be confusing to locals and visitors alike.

I think that the council should reconsider.

DOREEN CROWTHER

Kirkheaton

Not always speed

BOB Monkhouse (Mailbag, March 5) pleads for someone to do something on Wakefield Road to stop the ‘carnage’ over the last 10 years.

I have been a regular user for about 45 years.

During this period, millions of drivers have managed to negotiate the road safely and without incident.

The long straights where it used to be safe to overtake have been filled with road furniture, which has stopped this happening safely and the speed limits on the whole stretch have already been considerably reduced.

The number of fatal road accidents has actually increased after these ‘improvements’ were introduced. The statistics for fatalities are now are worse than they have ever been.

Some years ago now I was on my way to work in Wakefield, when I came across a Reliant Robin overturned on the bend, outside the Mining Museum.

The driver had a sneezing fit and his false teeth had shot out into the passenger foot well. He leaned over to retrieve them and lost control of the car.

I quote this instance for a reason. Had the driver been killed and no witnesses available, I think it is highly likely that authorities would have concluded that he had taken the bend too fast and lost control as a result.

Speed can and often does play a part in making accidents worse, but it may not be the primary cause which needs and justifies some corrective action. Cough medicine won’t cure a broken leg.

JOHN LANGFORD

Celebrate England

I READ in the Examiner (March 4) that a parade for St Patrick’s Day has been planned for the Irish community in Huddersfield.

This is great, as are all the multi-cultural activities in our diverse town.

Is it too much to hope for that English people in Huddersfield can celebrate St George’s Day on April 23 – or is Kirklees one of the councils branding this as ‘racist’?

I am all for everyone being able to celebrate their own festivals: everyone, that is, including English people in Huddersfield.

Hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

IAN ROCHE

Ex-Huddersfield resident

Fly the flags

HUDDERSFIELD Town Hall has three flagpoles, so why not fly flags from all of them?

It can hardly add much to the council tax bill.

We should fly the Union flag, European flag and Yorkshire flag (there is one – as announced in The Examiner last August), so satisfying all sensibilities – national, international and local.

All these flags have been recognised as official emblems, which means they can be flown anywhere by anyone.

So, let’s fly them every day.

JOHN S MURRAY

Honley

Memories appeal

I AM a committee member of the Basque Children of 37 Association UK and an ex-pat from Huddersfield.

I left Huddersfield some 40 years ago and met my wife, who is of Spanish descent, at university when we were both postgraduate students.

My mother in law, who was a teacher, was Basque and had come to England in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War together with 4,500 Basque children who were evacuated to Britain following the bombing of Guernica.

They came aboard the Habana which landed at Southampton.

The children stayed in a large camp near Eastleigh in Hampshire from where some returned to Spain but others were dispersed to a number of colonies around the UK.

We know that there were several colonies in Yorkshire, including one at Almondbury, about which we know very little.

I am writing in the hope of gaining some information from your readers about the Basque children’s colony at Almondbury.

I recently came across a document advertising a concert in Dalton and thought it might help remind your readers of the colony.

For more information about our group, visit www.basquechildren.org

JOHN KILNER

Imperial College, London

More local news

RECENTLY, there have been several letters in your letters page from people wanting a ‘Huddersfield’ sign for our town.

On a similar view, could I take issue with the Huddersfield Examiner?

There are an increasing number of headlines about news events in areas outside Huddersfield.

For example, on March 5 the headlines were about a school closure in Mirfield.

Either rename the Huddersfield Examiner the Kirklees Examiner, or stick to news stories about our town, in which people are interested.

Doesn’t anything happen in Huddersfield anymore?

MRS IRENE GRUNDY

Outlane

A big thank-you

I AM writing to thank all your readers who helped to make the British Heart Foundation Red for Heart campaign such a success in February.

It was great to see so many people going red for National Heart Month – from wearing red to work or school, to buying the Red for Heart pin badge, writing a love note in the windows of their local BHF shop or organising their own funding raising events.

We are also extremely thankful to those people who gave their time for free and organised events and other fundraising activities.

The money your community raised throughout the Red for Heart campaign will help save lives through pioneering research, patient care, campaigning for change and by providing vital information.

It is only with your support that we can beat heart disease together and save the life you love.

If people would still like to donate to the campaign, they can simply visit bhf.org.uk/red or call 0845 241 0976.

SUE GREEN

Fundraising manager, West Yorkshire

Can we be saved?

I REGULARLY read and hear that Gordon Brown wants to save the world.

I wish he would save me and others like me in England first, before he saves the rest of the world!

I am 74 and am now compelled to purchase an annuity this year, probably the worst time in history, with a pension fund which has almost halved in value over the past 12 months.

My other disastrous fund was with Equitable Life and I am a shareholder in Northern Rock, H.B.O.S and Bradford & Bingley.

I was an enthusiastic saver – as encouraged by (and conveniently forgotten by) Gordon Brown’s Government.

Now that he has bailed out the irresponsible banks and ratified some exorbitant pensions and bonuses ‘earned’ by failed bank senior executives, do you think we have any chance of being saved?

THOMAS ROBINSON

Almondbury