I HAVE just read an article by Barry Gibson entitled ‘Birkenshaw parents to travel to London to demand Swedish-style free school’.

I feel quite incensed as a taxpayer in Kirklees that a school has been investigated and decided against on educational grounds, yet these people continue.

Prof David Woods is a professional and one would hope expert in his field who, along with George Gyte, another professional and expert, have looked at the educational reasons for a school at Birkenshaw by looking at:

The impact the proposals would have on other schools in the area.

The impact on the council’s planned BSF strategy.

The impact these proposals would have locally and their individual merits in the light of local circumstances.

They also investigated the:

Diversity and needs

Urgency of needs regarding pupil numbers

Local standards

Community cohesion

The impact the proposals would have on other schools in the area

Impact on BSF strategy

It was decided that the impact on education in the whole of Kirklees would suffer.

As a parent myself, I appreciate that one’s own child is most important and I sympathise with this.

However, what is being forgotten here is – which high school do Birkenshaw children attend?

Many leave age 11 to go to the various grammar schools –Leeds Grammar School, Wakefield Grammar Schools, Heckmondwike Grammar School, Bradford Grammar School.

The fact is that there is a state grammar school just three miles from Birkenshaw in Heckmondwike.

Where are 180 children per year group going to come from?

Are the people of Birkenshaw really going to send their children to this new and wonderful ‘unknown quantity’ school in their area?

Well, I would not do so. My child would still sit for the other schools and if offered a place would take it up. Surely I am not in a minority. Could the new 900-place school at Birkenshaw become a ‘white elephant?’

As a council taxpayer in the Huddersfield area of Kirklees, whose children went to a local school, I appreciate there is only so much of an education budget for the whole area.

I totally object to the fact that because of this new school my children would have been disadvantaged.

The reason being:

All Kirklees schools will have to reduce the number of places they offer or there will be a huge excess of places.

The budget of these schools in Kirklees will then be reduced.

The number of teachers in these high schools in Kirklees will then have to reduce because there are fewer children to teach and less money available.

In the article it was said: “I want my children to stay together with the children they went to first school with. The Batley School wouldn’t have that community spirit.”

I reiterate that surely the same parents whose children sit entrance examinations will still do so and will attend the same schools rather than the school with unknown results.

All schools have a community spirit determined by those attending the school.

“The school would be available to all children, no matter what their skin colour or religion.”

If this is so, then their children can go to the school in Batley.

For the people of Huddersfield they probably consider Birkenshaw a long way and with no impact. Think again. The people of Kirklees and our representative – Kirklees Council – should endeavour to put a stop to this now.

Susan M Smith

Fenay Bridge

What about my washing?

THROUGHOUT the year we have to pt up with a range of ‘silly seasons’ – from Bonfire Night which lasts about six weeks to Hallowe’en which starts a week before the actual date and ends a week or so later.

But the summer months are the worst for me, and it seems to have started now.

Now only do we have to see, despite our efforts, people walking about the streets without their clothes on (and I mean the men here) but we have the endless barbecues.

I don’t object to them, of course, but my advice to anyone thinking of holding a barbecue is this – please consider your neighbour.

My neighbour failed to do this at the weekend. Having put my washing out on the line, I thought I’d sit out with a good book and a cold drink, but minutes later I found myself, and my washing, covered in smoke from my neighbour’s barbecue.

Not once did they think to pop their heads over the garden fence and mention their plans, or knock on my door.

Cue me having to re-do my washing.

Please think about others when you light the barbecue, it’s a simple thought but one which would be appreciated.

J T

Waterloo

Signs of the times?

AS a resident of HD8, I am becoming increasingly aware of the number of estate agents For Sale signs that seem to be appearing on public property, often hundreds of yards, and sometimes miles from the property that is for sale.

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Some agents erect two, sometimes three, boards for their properties, usually attached to lamp posts, street signs of placed on Kirklees owned land at the junction with the nearest main road.

They are springing up like weeds all over town, but are a scourge in HD8.

What will our town look like if every agent, or any firm for that matter, starts erecting advertising boards on every street corner?

They are unsightly, and worse in breach of the town and country planning act that limits the provision of sale boards to one at the house, within the boundary, and the board must be of a certain size.

This is blatant flouting of the law, and Kirklees Council do not seem to be prepared to act.

So if you see one of these, illegally placed signs at the end of your road, report it to the planning office – legally it should not be there.

Name and address supplied

Research plea

I AM hoping that some of your readers may be able to help me by supplying information on people who donated to the Building Fund of the South Cliff Congregational Church, Scarborough in 1864.

Today this building is known as St Andrew’s United Reformed Church, and we are due to celebrate our 145th anniversary.

As part of the celebrations we are making part of the building into a Heritage Chapel and Archive, and I am currently researching the people whose names are recorded on a very long list of subscribers.

Although our main benefactor was Sir Titus Salt, there were many more West Riding manufacturers and worthies involved, and I am trying to find information about Mr Wright Mellor and family and Mr David Sykes of Huddersfield; Mr Richard Hurst of Mirfield; and Mr William Shaw of Stainland.

I am taking this route because with so many names to research, I think local historians are likely to have more information than I could possibly collect in a visit to Huddersfield and district.

All contacts will be acknowledged, and the information I receive will be added to the archive, in which the names of those supplying the details can be recorded, if they wish.

Centenary events are planned to take place during the summer.

For details, or to send me information on the people mentioned above, I can be contacted on andy_triciamcnaughton@btinternet.com, or telephone 01723 369070.

Andrew McNaughton

Scarborough

Time to go vegetarian?

THE latest government agriculture figures – which include imports and exports – show that Britain is fast losing its taste for meat.

As a nation, we ate last year nearly a quarter of a million fewer tonnes of the stuff that we did just four years ago.

The fact that the UK’s population has grown by over a million in that time illustrates that, in real terms, the move away from meat is even more pronounced.

This is good news for animals. In 2009, 37 millions fewer of them were killed for the table compared to 2005. It is also good news for the planet; less meat consumption puts fewer strains on the environment.

However, sadly it is not all good news. Over 893 million animals are still killed for meat each year in the UK, most of them living appallingly short lives in squalid conditions and facing a terrifying death.

Justin Kerswell

Viva! campaigns manager, Bristol