NOT every councillor will be issued with an iPad as per the article in the Examiner.

Every councillor is being offered one, but it is not the case that every councillor is accepting one.

I was written to a few weeks ago and I declined the offer.

I have a home computer which the council provides which I use for emails. I use my own mobile phone for council business as well as personal phone calls. Other councillors have council phones.

I don’t think an iPad would add anything to the way I work, but that is my own personal choice and I know some councillors who prefer to use an iPad.

It’s horses for courses. Whether the iPad will save money in the long run remains to be seen.

We have to remember there are still a lot of people we represent in our wards who don’t use email and either write letters or use the telephone.

Modern technology has its uses, but it isn’t the only method of communication.

Clr Nigel Patrick

Conservative Member

Spend cash on roads

I would rather £25,000 be spent on our roads in the Holmfirth area and this would benefit the community.

Holly

Wooldale

Ungritted ‘vital link’

AFTER various accidents and scrapes we who live all around the New Laithe Hill/Hall Bower area strongly campaigned to make New Laithe Hill a no through road, backed by the local Green Party councillor and with good media coverage from the Examiner.

Unfortunately, at the last minute all this solid good work came to nothing – notwithstanding gates and barriers had been purchased by Kirklees Council – due to a West Yorkshire Police sergeant objecting to this claiming the lane (New Laithe Hill) was a vital a necessary through route for the emergency services and therefore not to become a no through road.

The lane has two 90 degree bends plus, in parts, two vehicles are unable to pass.

Apart from a very short stretch it has no footpath and is used as a ‘rat run’ in the peak periods as a shortcut from the Holme Valley to Huddersfield and, as previously said, it has been the site of numerous accidents.

To come finally to my question which is if, as the police sergeant said, a through road is a necessary and vital link, how come every winter when the snow and bad weather appears or like recently was sheet ice, the lane appears last on the list to get gritted or treated and usually never.

So is this vital link only vital in fair and good weather conditions?

Resident

New Laithe Hill

Our deserted hill

HAVE any of the people not wanting a pub to be built again on Castle Hill actually been up there recently?

I go up quite regularly to have a walk around. If I see six people up there, it is probably the most I will see.

With a pub there again, families, couples, people visiting the restaurant etc will once again make Castle Hill a place to visit and be proud of.

Jeff Brook

Almondbury

No need for pub

CASTLE Hill is and always was an ancient site.

That pub was put there when pubs in Huddersfield were the main reason for living.

I should know as I spent my childhood in the 1930s hanging around the windows of most pubs in Lockwood, listening to my parents singing and spending most of their money, sometimes until 10.30pm.

There’s no need for a pub or anything else on that site. They are a thing of the past. They are being given other uses today.

In my opinion it’s a place I always go to blow the cobwebs away and take a look at one of the best views in all Yorkshire.

We’ve been doing it for more years than I care to mention.

Old Guy

Netherton

The question is why?

WHY was the original pub demolished at Castle Hill.

Surely it should have qualified as a listed building – a place of great character to most people.

Why are the Thandi brothers so insistent on building on such a high profile heritage site?

Bearing in mind there are many more car drivers than when the original pub was in use, any form of traffic control on the narrow access road would be a joke.

The tower was erected for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.

Why wasn’t some form of edifice considered for Queen Elizabeth which would be more in keeping.

Finally, why build a new pub when so many existing pubs are closing down. Please leave our Castle Hill alone.

Mel Muscroft

Dalton

Bold demonstrators

I WRITE to congratulate the bold people who, on Monday, demonstrated against ATOS at their local premises in the Jobcentre in Huddersfield town centre..

Contracted by the government to help deliver the Tories’ benefits cuts programme, the French-based company ATOS is a perversity, a healthcare concern which doesn’t care one bit about the health of those concerned.

Its remit is to carry out medical examinations on sick and disabled people to sift out the unfortunates found to be ‘fit for work’.

ATOS’ examinations are so ruthless that many have been driven into poverty and despair, struggling not only against their health conditions but also against a society which denies them their right to live with dignity and forces them to compete for non-existent jobs they are incapable of doing.

When appeals have been made against ATOS’ fitness to work tests their decisions have been overturned more than 60% of the time. While not everyone appeals, or is able to, this figure casts severe doubt upon ATOS’ own capability to carry out the work it has been set.

The actions of those who spoke out against ATOS in Huddersfield are a beacon of hope that the benefits cuts programme can be challenged by the public if we are confident enough to do so.

In an age where the media bombards us with news about the hopeless state of the world, it is noticeable how often they ignore examples of people acting together to change things for the better.

René Thomas

Huddersfield