I FULLY support the Green and Valley Independents group on Kirklees Council.

The formation of the group has finally made the council and the traditional parties accept us as representatives of our communities, and I am happy to work alongside anyone who puts people and our communities ahead of other interests.

I am and always will be independent, and I will continue to work hard for the people that I represent, alongside anyone else who supports people before politics. I am happy to explain my actions and to be honest about what I do and why.

Much has been said about last week’s council meeting, and I believe that the residents of Kirklees should have a clear explanation of what the Conservatives did and why, and I invite Clr Light to explain why their failure to act means that Clr Khan will be our leader for the next four years.

I would support any administration that engages with all of our communities and that involves all our elected representatives – unfortunately neither the Labour Group nor the Conservative Group appear to be willing to do this.

I voted against Clr Khan and the Labour Group because they fail to engage with the public. They won’t listen to peoples concerns or their ideas, and what is worse, they have an attitude of not needing to.

But the alternative to Labour failed to live up to their words.

At the elections the Conservatives promised that if they led the council that they would involve communities in council decisions, split Kirklees, and review the Local Development Framework and the library changes.

Last week they had the chance to do this. Last week Clr Light could have put himself forward to lead the council – but he and his fellow Conservatives said that they weren’t willing to do the job.

If they aren’t willing now, will they ever be? If they don’t have the confidence and skills to lead our council what are they doing there and why are they making promises that they will never keep?

Because of the choice that the Conservatives made, we will all suffer the consequences – they don’t deserve the trust that people have placed in them.

Charles Greaves

Independent Councillor,Holme Valley North

Policies for people

R J Bray says in his letter (Examiner, May 28) “Perhaps Clr Andrew Cooper and Clr Kath Pinnock would care to explain why they would not support the Conservatives in running the administration’’.

The fact of the matter is that they never sought support and never made a ‘pitch’ to other groups.

I tried to get the non Labour groups round the table on a number of occasions to discuss how to address the leadership of the council and to put pressure on the Labour Party on issues of mutual concern, such as the libraries, but to no avail.

There simply wasn’t the will for joint discussions from the Conservatives.

Personally I have no particular enthusiasm for either Labour or the Conservatives running the council but my prime concern, in a hung council, would be about the policies they were seeking to pursue and their willingness to involve other groups in decision making.

The Greens have supported (and opposed) all the other political groups on the council at different times on different issues on the basis of the policies and their impact on local people.

Another statement by Mr Bray in his letter was “the Greens voted against Clr Khan and the main reason being they did not get the chair of the Scrutiny Panel or any of the chairs of major committees that they wanted”.

This maybe what he believes but it simply isn’t true.

Clr Khan threatened to remove the Green Party from chairing the Resources Scrutiny Panel if we didn’t support him as Leader before we made our decision.

It would be true however to say that these threats did inform our view of his character as a potential leader of the council.

In the end we didn’t support him because we couldn’t get a firm commitment on policy issues, including the libraries.

As a consequence of our decision at the annual council meeting Labour voted in favour of the Conservatives taking the Chair of the Resources Scrutiny Panel from the Green Party and Valley Independent Group as punishment to us and as a reward to the Conservatives, for abstaining on the vote on the leadership, thus allowing Mehboob Khan to become Leader of the Council.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Co-Leader of the Green Party and Valley Independent Group

Tough medicine

NYE Bevan, midwife at the birth of the NHS, famously said that he was only able to achieve his objectives because he “had stuffed the doctors’ throats with gold”.

With the present threat of industrial action by NHS doctors over pensions, it might seem that little has changed in the interim.

Yes Doc, changes to your pension arrangements might seem painful at first glance, but at least you will have the consolation of working for many years at (well) above-average salary.

Oh, and you will still qualify for a pension that is forecast to be more than twice the average wage for the workers (and will be nearly 10 times the basic State pension).

And don’t forget that, in Bevan’s day, your predecessors were on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Doesn’t seem as bad when you think about it that way, does it Doc? Deep breaths, positive attitude, monitor your blood pressure. Try to avoid getting over-excited.

That’s the way – no need for a large injection of cash after all.

Bill Armer

Deighton

Traffic doesn’t flow

ARTHUR Quarmby has a point (Letters, May 30) about the traffic lights in Holmfirth. When they are not working the traffic flows better.

The planners should come and look at the tailbacks up Greenfield Road at peak times ie from 8-30am to 9-00am and from 1700 to 18-00.

Also the Highways Department should come and take a look at Hollowgate as the state of the road is on a par to a third world country.

Come on Kirklees keep Holmfirth special.

John T Harrison

Holmfirth

Praise for Clark

CAN I add my congratulations to Dean Hoyle, Simon Grayson and the Town team for getting promotion.Well done everyone.

But, some praise must surely go to the previous manager, Lee Clark, who paved much of the way, and laid the foundations of the team.

Here’s to next season.

Armchair supporter

Mirfield.

Generous gesture

On behalf of the children, staff and parents of Crosland Moor Junior School I would like to thank Dean Hoyle for giving us the opportunity to attend the Play Off Final at Wembley.

It was a fantastic experience, enjoyed and appreciated by all, from a truly generous man.

Mrs D Hartley

Crosland Moor

Thanks to Dean Hoyle

SORRY but I don’t agree with Stan Ellis of Kirkheaton (Letters, May 31) ,who says a special thanks to Ken Davy, without whose intervention this weekend’s promotion would not have happened.

The only special thanks should go to Dean Hoyle for all he as done for Huddersfield Town Football Club.

Mr Davy should sort out the shares issue with Dean Hoyle, then he can concentrate on his beloved Giants, who seem to have to be having a few problems on the field at the moment.

So once again a very big thank you to Mr Dean Hoyle.

D Nolan

Huddersfield