Letters: Don’t shut Lloyds TSB in Meltham
Sep 9 2010 by Sarah Bull, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
WHY is the Meltham branch of Lloyds TSB closing?
The alternatives at Slaithwaite and Holmfirth are unsuitable. Travelling by car means trying to find parking which is not an easy option in either village. Travelling by bus depends on an infrequent bus service and spending unnecessary time in the village waiting for a return bus.
The Huddersfield option has similar problems but to a much lesser extent.
I know the slogan for LloydsTSB is ‘for the journey’, but why are you forcing ‘the journey’ on the people of Meltham?
Several people I have spoken to about this closure are thinking of transferring to another bank or the Post Office, so you will be losing customers.
Alan Starkey
Huddersfield
Bank is always busy
THE only bank on Meltham is to close on November 26.
Customers have been informed by letter that their records are to be sent to Slaithwaite – which is only three miles away.
Alternatively, we can use Holmfirth or Huddersfield branches. We have the choice of internet banking or telephone banking. Some procedures can be done at the Post Office. The cash machine will no longer operate.
No reason, other than the fact that a recent survey has taken place and the decision was made to close Meltham has been given.
The bank is always busy. Meltham is a growing township.
Lloyds TSB decision-makers have given no thought to the tremendous inconvenience this will cause the customers, both private and business.
It was easy to use this facility and an important advantage to be able to speak face-to-face with the teller or advisor.
Now we must make time-consuming journeys (those who travel by bus will have a problem going to Slaithwaite), have the stressful hassle of finding alternative arrangements, tackle the dubious internet banking system or the sluggish telephone system, to name but a few of the problems now faced. I am sure it will be even worse for the business community.
This closure is just another example of the contempt the banking industry has for its customers.
It is no longer a service industry. Banks are only interested in taking money, not in lending to businesses or supplying mortgages, nor indeed in making it easy to use the system.
S Wood
Huddersfield
Leave Shabab alone
WHY all the fuss about Shabab wanting to put a few tables and chairs outside their restaurant?
If you look up and down the pedestrian precinct, Merrie England now has tables spreading almost halfway across the precinct, Café Nero has tables outside and the bedding shop and The Works both have baskets of goods on the precinct. What is the difference?
Personally, I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to sit outside eating curry with people walking past them, but no doubt that is personal preference.
L Harding
Golcar
Still in the West Riding
I AM pleased to correct Henry Smith (letters Wednesday, September 8) about the supposed demise of The West Riding of Yorkshire.
Yes, the County Council of the West Riding was abolished in 1974 as were the Urban District Councils and the County Borough Councils such as Huddersfield, but the geographic areas are still very much alive and kicking.
If you follow Mr Smith’s flawed reasoning then the Colne Valley and places like Huddersfield no longer exist.
I am sure the citizens of these localities would not agree with him about that.
No, Mr Smith, Golcar is in the West Riding of Yorkshire and the writer of the About Us section of the Golcar website is not half a lifetime out-of-date.
Ian Greenhalgh
Meltham
Honour their bravery
THE Mayor of Dresden is opposed to a memorial to be erected in London to the memory of 55,573 RAF Bomber Command crew killed during the Second World War.
With the greatest respect to all those German civilians killed or injured as a result of RAF bombing operations in Dresden and elsewhere, I believe this protest is misconceived.
No-one proposes to glorify the deaths of anyone, civilian or military.
The aim is belatedly to honour those who bravely followed their orders in the full knowledge that they had a high chance of being killed or wounded. They were not permitted the luxury of debating the morality of those orders.
Both my late parents served with Bomber Command. My mother was a WAAF based at operational airfields, my father as an air navigator in Lancaster bombers.
Neither spoke much of their wartime experiences, but both were psychologically scarred for life. My father spoke bitterly about the lack of recognition for Bomber Command after the war, which he saw as a politically-motivated slight on his dead comrades.
I recall my mother, in later life, weeping at her memories of dead or severely burned young men being recovered from damaged aircraft which had returned to base.
Meanwhile, in his 80s, my father told me of his extreme disquiet at civilian casualties, but also of his feelings of fear and fatalism at seeing planes in his formation exploding or shot down in flames.
He was scathing of the Dresden raids which he thought unnecessary, feeling that lives on both sides were sacrificed for no real military gain. While disagreeing with his orders he, like so many others and especially the 55,573 who died in action, did his duty. Bomber Command crews deserve their memorial.
Bill Armer
Deighton
Reason for bad roads
“THE cost of repairing Kirklees roads ravaged by winter ...”
These words continue the myth that our first reasonably hard winter for years is the reason for the state of roads in Kirklees.
The real reason is the decades of neglect on the part of successive politicians and public officers in not carrying out a proper maintenance schedule with the result that surfaces deteriorated and eroded to the point where they were no longer waterproof.
Where roads were reasonably well resurfaced there has been no problem.
Maintenance budgets, as with motorists for Westminster politicians, form a convenient milch cow for financing any hare-brained scheme with the results that are clearly visible in deteriorating roads and dilapidated public buildings.
A L Jones
Meltham
Who is on naughty list?
THE latest rumpus over the England Footballers has one root cause – the FA.
For years now they have been using a system where footballers play at home one week and away the next. No wonder the poor ball kickers are confused.
I’m confused by the plethora of overpaid England footballers using draconian rulings made by overpaid woolly-minded judges to cover their tracks.
I no longer know which footballers are worthy of respect – something all your money cannot buy, lads. To help me out, I wonder if some newspaper could list the England players who have not taken out injunctions so that I will know which ones to support.
If newspapers are not allowed to mention names perhaps they should err on the side of caution and omit the players names when reporting on matches. So **** scored a goal from a superb cross by ******.
You can print my name, I’m not on the naughty list.
John Langford
Lepton
Football reunion
THIS football season 2010/11 is the Centenary Year of Frickley Athletic FC (formerly Frickley Colliery pre-1976).
The club wishes to invite all former players and officials from within your circulation area to a series of reunion nights to be held in the Clubhouse of the Tech 5 Stadium, Westfield Lane, South Elmsall throughout the Centenary Year.
These will give the opportunity for ex-players to renew friendship with their former team mates as part of the club’s Centenary celebrations.
The club will provide pie and peas suppers and liquid refreshments will also be available.
The club asks any former players and officials – or anyone knowing former players – to please contact John Longbottom on 01977 647242 for further information.
john longbottom
Pontefract
