‘Alien’ decision time at planet Kirklees

Nov 30 2009 by Sarah Bull, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

WHEN our councillors finally pack up and return to their home planet will we notice their passing?

I ask this question because I read recently in the Examiner that they have agreed to spend some £300,000 on lights and toilets on Castle Hill and this seems, to me at any rate, yet another example of ‘outer space’ thinking.

Is this the same council that announced it was consulting with a team of advisors who would show where cuts in council services and redundancies among council employees could be made?

Is this the same council that closed a library to save funds?

I’m sure those who are unlucky enough to be made redundant will look up at Castle Hill – illuminated at night – and think that it was worth losing their jobs for the privilege of seeing this spectacle.

Surely the cabinet members who passed this decision are grotesquely out of touch with reality.

Then again, perhaps their mother ship needs a homing beacon to locate them.

Trevor Woolley

Linthwaite

How tolerant is Islam?

FAROOQ Aftab cannot be allowed to get away with his general assertions about Islam and the persecution of Muslims in Switzerland.

Although I declare am not qualified to comment on the possible racist views or actions of the Swiss People’s Party, I do know that the objections to minarets may actually stem from a wider section of the Swiss public.

It is a fact that any planning application is required to have a skeletal sightline indication construction in place showing the size and height of the proposed structure.

This takes the form of a simple life-sized skeletal wooden outline. The average Swiss national might object to what might appear like a chimney spoiling his view.

Farooq further talks about Islam being a tolerant and peaceful religion, but he fails to acknowledge that many Muslim countries do not allow other religions to build churches and the nation that is Custodian of the Muslim Holy Places, Saudi Arabia, is the leader in this prohibition.

Some tolerance and multifaith culture there then? A ground-breaking achievement was recently experienced when Catholics were allowed to build a church in Doha, Qatar, despite a large Catholic following from Indian and Philipino workers there for more than 40 years.

By all means state your case, but at least balance the argument with honest acknowledgement of the restrictions in Islam toward other religions.

GB

Shepley

Stone is not ugly

HOW ugly the new £100m Kirklees College looks in the pictures featured in Kirklees Council’s magazine being distributed to every household in the district – almost exactly the same as the existing monstrosity.

More than a decade ago Huddersfield had a spate of new supermarkets – Morrisons in south Huddersfield, Sainsbury’s in central Huddersfield and Asda in north Huddersfield – all of which look well built in stone.

The town’s new educational buildings, Kirklees College and the recent Huddersfield University Arts Centre should follow suit and dress themselves appropriately in Yorkshire stone.

Regeneration in Huddersfield is ugly and millions of pounds of public money is being badly spent (don’t mention pink granite from China).

As an urban design student years ago in Oxford, the basic lesson to learn was the over-riding importance of the local Cotswold stone in which nearly all new educational buildings for the town’s two universities had to be built.

Huddersfield once had a reputation nationally as a handsome town, but its educational elite is undermining this.

Today’s generation of Kirklees planners and big-whigs could learn a lot – simply by opening their eyes, not least when they go to their local supermarkets which look better designed than most new public buildings.

Kenn Winter

Royal Town Planning Institute member, Lindley

Listen to the voters

SOME people just do not get it that it is not whinging but making the councillors listen to the wishes of the people of Kirklees and not themselves (Stop Moaning, Examiner 24 Nov.09).

Indeed, I would ask, has the people of Huddersfield’s involvement with any of the council’s consultations been taken up by our political leadership?

If so, what are these where our councillors have listened to the people of Huddersfield and put their recommendations into physical actions that have actually happened?

I don’t know of any that could be described as areas of major significance for Kirklees and where the present council’s consultation process appears to be just continual political electioneering.

Indeed again, did the people of Huddersfield have any influence whatsoever in the St George’s Square makeover as I have not heard or seen any substantiated information to this fact.

Did the people of Huddersfield have any say in choosing the Chinese stone against Yorkshire stone, thus creating less demand for local merchandise and more chance of job losses in the Kirklees area?

Did the people of Huddersfield have any say whatsoever in what the £4m-plus should be spent on?

All we get is our present council’s cabinet members and leaders saying a lot about consultations but where there is no proof that the people’s wishes are actually being listened to.

Dr David Hill

Golcar

Bad time overseas

AS John Avison wrote (Examiner, November 19), the Niger Delta is “no place for a holiday.’’

Years ago I spent some time as guest aboard a high-tech cargo ship serving that region and what struck me was the degree of corruption.

For example, where ‘pilots’ were required, such as up the Warri River, they all wanted so-called gifts.

On one occasion cases of Becks beer were being lowered onto a guy’s small motorboat, but when he incompetently lost two overboard he demanded replacements ... and the captain really had no option but to comply.

Of course oil companies are not perfect, but essentially the problem is that the Nigerian Government returns relatively little revenue to the local population.

By contrast, Namibia is a country to visit. Superb scenery and coastline and very well governed.

But then the explanation might be that the first President, Hage Geingob, got his PhD at Leeds University and the Windhoek Rugby Stadium is named after him.

A charming man, now Minister for Trade and Industry who I once invited to visit Huddersfield.

Name and address supplied

Huddersfield

Labour can win election

I HAVE just taken delivery of a copy of Colne Valley Constituency News where the Lib/Dem hopeful tells us that next year’s General Election is a clear choice between herself and the Tories.

She couldn’t be more wrong. The tremendous result for Labour in Glasgow North East shows that next year’s General Election result is up for grabs, but one thing is for sure there has never been a Lib/Dem Government, nor will there be.

If this is the best they can come up with they must be really clutching at straws and think the electorate is daft by providing such dated and irrelevant information based solely on local election results.

Everyone knows – but apparently not the Lib Dems – that local election results don’t predict general elections.

She may be a local councillor, but her leaflet is a joke.

A few months before an election she should be telling us what she has done and what she will do – living and working in the area and being treasurer of her local pony club doesn’t fill me with confidence that she could cope with the rigors of being an MP.

Cath Ingham

Holmfirth

Work for local firms

PLEASE will someone explain why Huddersfield companies are not supplying the railings for Greenhead Park?

First we have Chinese granite and now Derbyshire railings! We have only just got our Huddersfield signs replaced. Oh for the old Huddersfield!

mrs m h chambers

Newsome

Brilliant care at home

I HAVE just come out of hospital after an operation and the after care I have received from the NHS has been wonderful.

The day after my discharge I was visited by a lovely lady from Rapid Response who made sure I had all the equipment I needed to make things easier for me during my convalescence.

Then I was visited by the physiotherapist who, again, was great.

After six weeks I had the hospital discharge ladies Fiona, Debbie and Carol to name a few. Nothing was too much trouble. They made breakfast for me and my husband and then made our dinners, washed and dressed me, washed up and left us when they were satisfied we were OK.

These people get no mention at all. I, for one, thank them from the bottom of my heart for their care and dedication. God bless you all.

Mrs I Burgon

Newsome