ON the same day the Examiner published my letter regarding road safety and “something must be done” councillors, two pop up (“Sovereign study draws a blank”, Express & Chronicle, Saturday).

After a £21,000 study, Kirklees Council has concluded the boring reality – the Sovereign junction isn’t actually that dangerous after all, with drivers being aware of its potential and reacting accordingly.

I would have thought this to be good news, but it won’t do for Councillor Priestley who clearly knows better than the professionals who are “negative, negative, negative” and still thinks that “something must be done”.

What exactly? And what’s the point in spending £21,000 if you’re going to ignore the result because it disagrees with your preconceptions?

Whenever I jump to a conclusion at work the gaffer says: “Shall we have the trial before the execution?”, then usually proves me wrong.

The last tragic accident in Kirkburton has brought out two more Councillors (Smith and MacDonald) and various local activists who knew immediately that speed was to blame.

They don’t need to wait for the police investigation either.

This accident involved only two vehicles, both on a straight course on a long straight stretch of road which has good visibility and first impressions are that the drivers were far from your typical boy racers.

Maybe the fireman’s comment that he’d noticed on the way that the roads were slippery gives us a clue?

So, let’s see what the accident investigation reveals.

Then perhaps all the amateur advisers will be able to run to the Examiner and say they were wrong – but still want the speed limit reducing anyway.

Richard Huddleston

Slaithwaite

Poorest suffering

WE in council accommodation are to have a 6% rent increase and 3.5% council tax rise.

In the present climate of the credit crunch, most people are paying less mortgage and having rents frozen.

What have we done wrong? The 6% is to bring us in line with housing associations.

But they don't have 30-year-old bathrooms and radiators, with no fires. We wrap up in throws or shawls in bad weather.

So, Kirklees pays the Government £59m from our tenants to get a £24m grant for the authority.

Why don’t we keep our money and not bother getting a grant?

As it now stands we, the poorest, are being hit the hardest.

Let’s come under Calderdale and only have 1.75% council tax rise. As usual Kirklees are 0.5% above national average with their increase.

Mr Brown looks after private banks and their bonuses, at cost to social housing tenants.

Angry tenant

Springwood

Engine facts

I WISH to draw your attention to the photograph on page 19 the Examiner on March 2, entitled Memory Lane.

The last sentence of the accompanying caption tells us that it belonged to a 3000 horse power, Napier Sabre Jet.

The piston engine produced by Napier called the Sabre was a 24 cylinder, ‘H’ (laid flat configuration, six cylinders to a bank) of 26.7 litres capacity producing in the Sabre VII, 3000 hp on take off.

The air frame used with the early marks of this engine was the Hawker Typhoon, which was superseded by the Hawker Tempest, although at the end of the war the Tempest received a Bristol radial engine.

The jet engine was a completely different article.

Incidentally, D. Napier and Son used to produce printing machines.

Don Brown

Dalton

Royds pupils not all bad

I WAS saddened to read your article (Thursday February 26) regarding the “pupil gang rampage” of a number of Royds Hall students.

The behaviour of the pupils involved is deeply shocking and it was reassuring to see that the school have reacted so quickly.

However, it is a great shame for the majority of Royds students, who had nothing to do with this atrocious attack, to be tarred with the same brush.

My son has attended Royds Hall school for two years now and, whenever I go into school, I am always struck by the vibrant atmosphere of the place.

I have yet to meet a student who is not willing to go out of their way to help me or point me in the right direction and, without exception, the staff I have met are full of energy and enthusiasm.

In recent months, the school has celebrated many student achievements, which sadly do not get reported in the Examiner.

I think that in acknowledging the behaviour of a minority, we should also be saluting the more positive attributes of the majority.

Name and address supplied

Head for Caribbean

SO, ‘Tax Payer of Dalton’, you are hacked off with the smoking ban, the cold weather, VAT and the British government.

Dare I suggest you give up smoking in order to save some money towards emigrating to the Caribbean?

Make sure though, before you get there, that they are happy to have whingers living on their islands. Bon voyage.

Name and address supplied

Marathon for Mencap

AS a Mencap ambassador and having run the marathon for the charity before, I know what a massive challenge it is.

During my latest challenge on Dancing On Ice, I’m encouraging those from Yorkshire running this year’s London Marathon to support Mencap and make a difference to the lives of people with a learning disability.

Money you raise will help Mencap continue to fight to end the prejudice and discrimination people with a learning disability face in their everyday lives.

Whether this is your first marathon, or you are trying to beat your personal best, Mencap will be there with you supporting you to reach your goals.

So, if you have a place in this year’s Flora London Marathon, why not use it as an opportunity to help others?

For more information on how to use your marathon place to fundraise for Mencap call 020 7696 6983 or visit www.mencap.org.uk/events

Donal McIntyre

Journalist and Mencap patron

Informed decision

I WONDER how many people there are who pontificate about the British National Party being somehow extreme, yet have never read the BNP newspaper ‘The Voice of Freedom’, where one can find the party’s policies – other than those distorted by the leftist multiculturalists for their own ends.

I doubt these people have read the informative Identity magazine, which covers many subjects that are very relevant to us all now and for our future.

I doubt that they have read the Bible from cover to cover and understand its meaning without being preached to.

I doubt they have read the Koran from cover to cover, thus being incapable of comment.

I doubt they have read the Searchlight magazine, which is not on display in Huddersfield Library.

You have to ask the librarian for it, because for some diverse reason it is kept under the counter.

I have read all these and, after great consideration, I don’t see the BNP as any more extreme than what is classed as moderate.

Len Sandford

Lepton

Lost identity

HOW can Kirklees Council be judged one of the best authorities in the country when they have made a mess of St George’s Square and the zebra crossing at Lockwood?

Also the roads in Huddersfield are so bad.

They also take too long doing any road repairs. But the main thing is, since Huddersfield became part of Kirklees, it has gone downhill and lost its identity as a Yorkshire town.

Brian Hinchcliffe

Huddersfield resident

Think of the horses

THE 2009 Cheltenham Festival this month marks the second anniversary of the launch of Animal Aid’s Race Horse Deathwatch – an online database that monitors all thoroughbred deaths on Britain’s racecourses.

Nationally, more than 400 horses are raced to death every year.

Some 38% of these fatalities occur during, or immediately after, a race.

The other victims perish from training injuries or are killed after being assessed by their owners as no-hopers.

Cheltenham ranks amongst the most hazardous of Britain’s 60 racecourses.

Since 2006, 14 horses have died at the festival.

This ‘sport’ is kept alive only through betting income and course attendance fees.

Please don’t back the cruelty – for you it’s only a harmless flutter, but horses could pay with their lives.

Fiona Pereira

Animal Aid