HOW fortuitous that a forum has started up on Facebook just as the Thandi brothers are seeking planning permission again for a hotel on Castle Hill.

If they had adhered to the plans they originally had permission for, a hotel would have been up and running for a few years but I understand that the site has reverted to Green Belt because the hotel was pulled down.

I do not really know how to use Facebook properly but have been able to have a look.

There are many comments up to March/April this year, presumably when planning permission was sought earlier and turned down.

This has started up again in June and more and more are adding their support. Why now?

Looking at those who have added their names – 697 members but over 1,000 votes in support – there are some from Sheffield Hallam University – have they ever visited Castle Hill? – and some from local 6th form colleges. Are they old enough to drink?.

How many more of the signatories have ever visited and how many live locally ?

It looks as though it is easy to get users to sign. Just send it to a friend and ask them and it soon looks as though you have lots of interested people.

Yes, it would be good to have some type of visitors’ centre with facilities for drinks and toilets.

But any building, if allowed – and that is highly unlikely – would have to be built in old stone as it would not be a landmark, but an eyesore.

The old stone from the hotel is gone.

A lot of work has been done by Kirklees, repairing the paths, putting up information boards and employing a ranger who arranges walks etc.

Many people are still visiting on a regular basis.

How about someone who knows what to do starting a Facebook forum in support of our historic hill and against a hotel.

Hill Supporter

Huddersfield

Main causes of crashes

I DO not think that having no speed cameras will actually cause that many more accidents at all. Cameras only target one thing.

I have spent over nine years driving on the M62 to work every day, mostly around the rush hour when it would be hard to speed anyway.

No signalling and undisciplined lane changing possibly cause more accidents and that is always not just the rush hour.

Then there are those who sit at 68mph in the middle lane and never move over even late at night and those who stay in the outside lane which is the overtaking lane, not a fast lane as some people would have.

Then there are those who drive at 28mph in a 30mph limit and think they are good, but do not have their lights on at night or in wet weather because they cannot be bothered.

I rest my case

M Fletcher

Emley

Poor state of the roads

I TOTALLY agree with T Wooley on the state of our roads (September 7) and the fact that a stitch in time would save a fortune.

I have twice contacted Kirklees Highways regarding the road from Fulstone to Stocksmoor which was resurfaced around seven years ago and is now deteriorating at the edges where traffic is running on the grass verges and crumbling the edge of the road away. Also there are a few potholes arriving.

If something is not done shortly the cost of repairs will be double that of a quick fix to stem the problem.

Some hardcore to the edges would, in my view, stop things getting worse and a few tarmac patches will prevent the holes getting bigger.

It makes me wonder how often Kirklees Highways inspect minor roads and their condition.

I report defects often and maybe if more of your readers put pen to paper then possibly Kirklees would sit up and take heed.

I could rant on about various roads and weeds at the sides and on footpaths in the Holmfirth area that could do with someone getting sorted instead of local people doing their jobs by complaining.

As a good comment, thank you Kirklees for resurfacing Wooldale road.

It is terrific with the exception of the edges by the Wooldale Arms. Why they did not go to the edge by the wall I cannot understand.

Holly

Townend

Help our old veterans

I HAVE recently been speaking to a veteran of the Second World War who has been collecting on behalf of The Royal Navy Association.

In conversation with him – a veteran of the Kola run and a Burma Star holder – he tells me that his colleagues and himself have to stand outside in the town centre with collecting tins so they can ask for donations.

They are now all in their 80s.

I also understand that his association and others representing the army and RAF are charged £150 for the use of a room in Huddersfield Town Hall for coffee mornings and such like to try and bring much needed funding for the associations.

These people fought for our country – as many of our young men and women are doing today – and our council charges these people.

Surely this isn’t right?

Maybe someone from the council could explain this situation where we – that is the rate-paying public – charge for something that should quite clearly be free.

I very much doubt the Americans would charge their veterans.

This is absolutely disgraceful and should be reviewed as a matter of urgency.

Bob Monkhouse

Dalton

Cut council magazine

AS a Conservative candidate last year I was allowed to listen to the old Kirklees chief executive and the present chief executive when he was finance director telling us that there had to be deep cuts in spending in Kirklees.

Each party was given the same briefing, so it could not have come as a great shock to the Labour leader, Clr Mehboob Khan, that any party taking leadership of the council would have to make the same stark choices.

The old Labour government had already, therefore, made us aware that massive spending cuts were on there way.

In the latest instalment of the Kirklees Council magazine dropping on the doormat of Kirklees residents, Clr Khan makes it clear that the government, in his opinion, is responsible for the cuts to come.

Ironically, he is using our council taxes as a propaganda sheet to attack the government. Surely this is an abuse of our money?

Surely this newsletter should be one unmourned victim of council cuts and Clr Khan will have to make do with using twitter via the internet.

Bernard McGuin

Marsh

Help the cancer nurses

THERE are just over four weeks to go until the registration deadline for this year’s Marie Curie Cancer Care Daffodil Schools Challenge and the Mini Pots of Care fundraising activities.

Daffodil Schools Challenge and Mini Pots of Care are educational activities that encourage creativity and industry in young people of all ages.

Daffodil Schools Challenge tasks pupils aged 11 to 16 with designing, planning, and creating a visual display based on the charity’s daffodil emblem, either at their school or elsewhere in the community.

They are also challenged to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care in the process.

For Mini Pots of Care, children aged three to11 receive a free pot and a daffodil bulb to plant in the autumn term.

The children then care for their flower over the winter months to reflect the work of Marie Curie Nurses.

In spring, when the daffodils bloom, the children have fun on Mini Pots of Care Day by painting their pots before taking them home to someone they care about in return for a donation for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The funds raised through both activities will help Marie Curie Nurses care for terminally ill people in their own homes at the end of their lives, surrounded by their loved ones.

Registration for both activities closes on September 30.

To find out more – including free downloadable lesson plans and activity resources for youth groups visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/schoolsandyouth or call 08700 340 040.

Ann Hodgson

Marie Curie Cancer Care, West Yorkshire Fundraising Office

Boring political talk

JUST to end the boring discussion on the Labour Government of 1931.

If anyone wishes to know about this period of boring history, they can always look it up on Wikipedia or other internet sites.

Personally, I couldn’t give a damn about 1931 – it was before my time.

I am, however, concerned with what happens today and when I see the likes of Prescott, Mandelson and Kinnock in the House of Lords it makes my skin crawl.

I cannot understand it when people tend to ‘airbrush’ out the Labour Government of the late 1970s but blame everything on Thatcher.

No doubt the last Labour Government will be ‘airbrushed’ out and all blame will be put on this government.

PF

Huddersfield