AS Mayor of Kirklees I would like to encourage your readers and the residents of Kirklees of all ages and from all communities, different ethnic and faith groups, to give their support to one of most important national commemorative events of this and any other year, Remembrance Sunday, the Poppy Appeal and the many services and ceremonies that happen on and around Remembrance Sunday.
The Poppy Appeal remains by far the biggest source of fundraising by the Royal British Legion to help servicemen and women and their families.
Since 1921 the Royal British Legion has been the leading organisation and charity in helping and safeguarding the welfare of those in need, both families of ex-servicemen and women and, equally as important, those who are serving in the armed forces today, of which there are many from our local area.
There are still many conflicts and peacekeeping efforts across the world involving our armed forces. The demands on the services and support of the Royal British Legion are increasing all the time, so continued support from the public for its efforts is vital.
Local people can get actively and more directly involved and go beyond simply donating to the Poppy Appeal. The Royal British Legion is again campaigning for volunteers for the Poppy Appeal effort. Anyone over the age of 16 can help and get more information by ringing freephone 0800 085 5924.
Residents and communities in Kirklees have close and long-standing connections with the armed forces, some of them going back hundreds of years. It is also a significant anniversary year for two important organisations, the 90th anniversary of the RAF and the 100th anniversary of the Territorial Army.
The Remembrance activities in Kirklees this year follow on from the impressive freedom parade in Huddersfield on October 25 by the Yorkshire Regiment, which incorporates the former Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding), now the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Duke of Wellington’s).
It was heartening to see so many members of the public, including young people, turning out to support the parade and the regiment; it brought home at first hand the close connections of the area with our armed forces.
I will be supporting other events during my year in office involving many other local groups and organisations with close connections and associations with supporting the armed forces.
I hope that through the generosity of residents in supporting the Poppy Appeal this year we can continue to demonstrate the importance local people place on the efforts of the armed forces past and present.
Karam Hussain
Mayor of Kirklees
Bad value BBC
THE furore about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand has brought to a head something a lot of people have been thinking for a long time; that the BBC takes a lot of money from us for our TV licence and we have no option but to pay it.
The reaction may seem very unfair to Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. I think Russell Brand has dealt with it the best while Jonathan Ross has kept himself to himself because he has the most to lose.
The standard of television generally is bad and the standard of BBC television is getting bad too. We expect the BBC to be better and to give us a better service. There are far too many reality shows; we are sick and tired of them. It is cheap television and appeals to the lowest common denominator.
I think some people at the BBC are enjoying themselves a lot more than we are enjoying watching them.
Janette Hunter
Linthwaite
Old market outdated
THE old market hall in King Street was a fine building architecturally but outdated as a market.
In exchange for its demise we got a modern indoor market and the levelling of Ramsden Street to create the Piazza. But the most important of all was the establishment of the underground system. This has enabled the market and all the surrounding shops to be refurbished from underneath, thus avoiding surface traffic.
The present new development plans have arisen because the library building now needs rebuilding. The Empire State Building in New York is an older structure, but both were constructed on the same steel-framework system. However, I have not heard that this 108-storey tower is to be demolished!
But the plans for redevelopment were based not on what were the needs or wants of Huddersfield, but on the cheapest cost to the ratepayers, hence for the biggest financial benefit for the developer.
Surely a better solution would have been to re-site a new library complex on the old railway warehouse site. But this would not have yielded any profit for the developer.
I sincerely hope the present market is not vandalised in the new development. If this happens, in 50 years time there will be cries of: “Why did they have to alter the wonderful Queensgate market?”
But I’m afraid it will be money that talks in the end.
Edgar Priestley
Birkby
A town, not a city
KIRKLEES Council’s plans to turn St George’s Square into a major attraction and central feature to rival those in major cities making the space accessible to accommodate 10,000 strong audiences as well as the necessary stage and equipment is a marvellous idea.
But it is flawed. Huddersfield is not a city, but many of its citizens have to travel to cities to work, due to the failure of the town council to encourage sufficient new jobs to replace the many thousands lost, most from the town’s traditional industries.
These citizens need easy access to public transport, taxi or private car to the station, which on weekdays has 468 trains arriving or departing daily.
These trains serve Huddersfield 24 hours a day. Thousands more would use the train if they could park their car at or near to the station. One only needs to visit other commuter towns to see how progressive they are in providing parking facilities to cope with the traffic.
New carriages are being built to strengthen existing trains, while plans are in hand to introduce additional services to serve Huddersfield.
The introduction of tram-trains on the Penistone Line to Barnsley and Sheffield will see further improvements and increase in passenger numbers.
Will the council please identify another town or city with an area in front of a British railway station which is used for events like they plan?
The town planners are doing a Dr Beeching to Huddersfield. They can’t see the reason why for many years the square was the terminus for the council-owned steam and horse trams introduced in 1883, when there were only some 219 trains arriving or departing from Huddersfield daily on weekdays.
These also included trains to Kirkburton, Holmfirth and Meltham, now no longer served by rail.
Can the council now consider providing a new access for road vehicles to the station by using the former goods yard in Fitzwilliam Street to serve as a new access to the station to eliminate traffic from the square.
I believe a new platform is already proposed on this side of the station. Why not provide a multi- storey car park adjacent to the station for the ever-increasing numbers of commuters to leave their cars? And why not make easier access to this side for pedestrians from the bus station?
This would allow the square to become a tranquil area.
Better still, why not move the station down to the former Hillhouse sidings to provide Huddersfield with a station easily accessible to all with a bus link to and from the town centre and bus station.
Finally, if the high-speed railway (London-Manchester-Leeds) proposed by the Conservative Party is going to serve Huddersfield will the council be recommending that the station be built on Lindley Moor to avoid disturbing Huddersfield’s historic heritage, allowing the town to become another pure dormitory backwater town?
Geoff Lumb
Cowlersley
We need a modern library
IT’S good to know that the Twentieth Century Society has shown its weight behind the case for retaining the Queensgate Market Hall intact.
Civic vandalism, of which your leading article speaks, is usually the result of pressure from developers for whom civic improvement is not a primary consideration but a peg on which commercial development can be hung.
Huddersfield’s chief need is for a 21st century public library. The present building was designed before the last war for residents from a much smaller catchment area.
Also, there was no thought of a greatly expanded Technical College, much loss of a modern university with upwards of 20,000 students, not to mention a better educated and better informed body of general readers.
The library has always been well run, but is now totally unsuited for today’s needs. Technological advance alone has made the building unfit for purpose and any idea that it could be extended where it stands is unrealistic. A fresh start is needed.
Can we have a proper library and art gallery only if we have a three-story department store above, a large hotel and a further profusion of bars, restaurants and shops?
I don’t believe it.
philip charlesworth
Waterloo
