KIRKLEES with its mixture of different landscapes must be one of the most gifted parts of the country.

Even if you live in one of the less fortunate parts of the area you are never far away from places of natural beauty – the sorts of places where you can have a family day out enjoying the diverse scenery, woodlands, grassy hills and plenty of waterways that criss cross the landscape.

The thing that amazes me is that in this time of extreme austerity Kirklees Council has found the money from somewhere to tart up lamp-posts all over the borough.

Most people going about their everyday business will probably not have noticed all the hanging flower baskets that have sprung up swinging from the lampposts alongside the roads.

Don’t get me wrong, they look very pretty, but at a time when we are looking to change the way libraries are run and services at Surestart centres and all the other things that are having such a big effect on our local communities, can it be right to spend money in this way?

You can’t be getting baskets of this sort full of flowers with the regular maintenance for a few pounds.

It’s like spending loads of money on your front garden when you need a new cooker or a washing machine in the house.

I don’t actually know where the funding is coming from but surely it’s better in times of austerity to put the money into things that help the mind to blossom such as libraries and children’s schemes rather than tarting up lamp-posts at the sides of the roads, no matter how pretty they look.

If people want to see pretty things then take a walk in your local beauty spots and put up the hanging baskets if and when the country ever gets back to a time when we have money to spare on flower power.

Linfit Joe

Linthwaite

‘No’ to Castle Hill pub

WOULDN’T it be lovely to have a charming little tea room/bar/toilet/little shop/information and education centre on Castle Hill!

It would be a place to take visitors for refreshments and to enjoy the views from this historic and iconic landmark. It would be a chance to reflect on the social and historical importance of the site.

Visitors could enjoy the wildlife and biodiversity at this nature reserve while having a cold glass of cider or a cup of tea and a bun, then use the toilet and then buy a reminder of their visit.

The bar could be open until 11pm when everyone could go home – except the owners – who could live on site and stop the dodgy goings-on and the stealing of the paving stones.

How lovely!

Wouldn’t it be simply awful to have a loud, noisy, busy pub on Castle Hill again, especially one which could be noisy into the early hours as it is also planned as a hotel – with seven en-suite bedrooms!

As happened before, late night visitors would bellow from the hill edge before throwing their plastic glasses down the hill.

Licences for extended hours would be regular with loud music rolling down the hill to the rest of Huddersfield to share.

There would be passing reference to the history of the hill and one public toilet for those odd people who were interested in the hill and not the hotel. Most of the wildlife would move elsewhere or be traumatised as drunken humans stagger around and fall down the ditches.

Castle Hill is a wholly inappropriate place for a seven-bedroomed hotel – go build it on Halifax Road!

How long would it be before they wanted to make access ‘easier’ and ‘less hazardous’ – by digging a dual-carriageway into the hillside?

Ruth Elliott

Newsome

Welcome to Huddersfield

I MUST say that after I found out that my daughter had decided she wanted to spend three years of her life studying in Huddersfield I was a little worried as Huddersfield is a far cry from what she and I are used to living in Daventry in Northamptonshire.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of the university and the people who were so kind to drive us to the front door of the institution itself.

I must extend my gratitude towards those at the university who went above and beyond their positions for finding us accommodation to stay in when we lost our train tickets back to Northampton.

For those who read this, you live in a beautiful town and when my daughter starts in the imminent academic year I will look forward to driving up and seeing the delights of what this town has to offer.

Lucinda J Chertsey

Daventry

Remembering greyhounds

LAST WEEKEND was Greyhound Remembrance Weekend when events were held across the UK in memory of the hundreds of thousands of greyhounds that have suffered and been put to death in the 86 years since commercial greyhound racing began in this country on July 24, 1926.

According to greyhound protection organisation Action for Greyhounds, as many as 10,000 greyhounds are still being ‘put down’ every year after failing to make the grade as racers or when their ‘careers’ on the tracks come to an end.

An RSPCA report has stated that “at least 20 greyhounds a day – either puppies which do not make the track, or ’retired’ dogs aged three or

four – simply ‘disappear’, presumed killed.’’

In addition, hundreds of greyhounds sustain serious, sometimes fatal, injuries while racing.

Members of the public can help put an end to this horrific situation by not attending dog tracks or betting on greyhound racing, so this appalling industry fades away through lack of financial support.

More information is available about this issue at www.actionforgreyhounds.co.uk

Nuala Reilly

Cowlersley

Name that headmaster

DURING World War Two I was evacuated to Fairlea Road in Berry Brow.

It was 1943 or 1944 and the Primary School I attended was at the bottom of Taylor Hill.

It is now, I believe, a carpet warehouse. It was close to Lockwood roundabout where trolley buses used to turn. Does anyone know the correct name of the school and the name of the then headmaster at that time?

Brian Worts

Exmouth

Close view of Torch

A FEW weeks ago, I, like many others, tried to get a glimpse of the Olympic Torch as it passed through Huddersfield.

Apparently, many only got a quick view from a distance due to the crowds and were quite disappointed. Now you can get a close up view. On Saturday, July 28 as part of our fundraising effort to repair the East Window the annual garden party is being held from 1pm to 4pm at St John’s Church in St John’s Road, Birkby, where the torch, carried at Ackworth, Barnsley, together with the young lady who carried it, will be in attendance.

Now is your chance to come and get a close up view, bring your camera and have your, or your children’s, photograph taken with it and also join in the afternoon’s many events.

A Clarke

Churchwarden