ARTHUR Quarmby wrote a good letter (Negotiating Obstacles, September 20, 2012) on the increasing difficulties of getting around on Huddersfield’s roads.

Local road capacity is in dire need of improving and Huddersfield, yet again, seems to have been overlooked by central government which recently announced major infrastructure projects.

We have a ring road no longer fit for purpose. Our town centre, completely surrounded by asphalt and guarded by legions of traffic lights, appears to have turned its back on the world.

The absence of any link roads, urban freeways or a bypass means that all main routes are squeezed through suburbs and directly onto the ring road where a miserable stop-start journey awaits the hapless traveller.

Where’s the M1/M62 link? What’s happened to the Leeds Road/Cooper Bridge corridor improvement scheme? What about a pedestrian bridge at Queensgate?

What about a new river crossing at Milnsbridge? What about proper cycle paths? Who on earth at Kirklees thought that protruding kerbs were a good idea as they are just another life-threatening hazard for cyclists. What about a council that truly represents and fights for the interests of our town?

Oh, and while we’re at it, re-open the Kirkburton, Meltham and Holmfirth branch lines.

Reopen the Woodhead railway tunnel. Construct a second trans-Pennine motorway linking Sheffield and Manchester over the Woodhead Pass.

Calm down, deep breaths, you’re getting over-excited again.

Uncle Grumpy

Golcar

Need for traffic-calming

VINCENT Tompkinson (Examiner Letters, September 26) is of the opinion that the traffic calming scheme on residential streets in Springwood is a waste of money.

He supports his case by saying that a report by Highways Officers awarded the scheme ‘too few points.’

The fact is that such reports produced by Highways officers give a heavy emphasis to people who have been killed or injured on the relevant stretches of road. Kirklees Highways place much less attention on risk of injury.

It is a classic case of someone having to be knocked down by a vehicle before any action is taken.

On the corner of Oastler Avenue and Springwood Avenue a wall has been demolished and rebuilt several times by vehicles taking the corner too fast.

I have spoken to many residents on the affected streets on Springwood who have raised the issue over a number of years and there is a very large degree of support for the proposal to keep speeding traffic off these backstreets.

Mr Tompkinson said he is not surprised there were only four objections because he could only find four signs about the proposal on affected streets.

What he obviously doesn’t know is that all residents on the affected streets received a letter informing them of the proposals. This resulted in only two objections from the affected streets.

We could have ignored the problem and waited until someone had an accident.

It may be the way others might approach an issue like this but it is not my way.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Green Party, Newsome Ward

The bad old days

IN REPLY to Continually On The Move (Letters, September 21), from September 1965 to the mid 1970s I commuted by bus to my workplace.

That meant morning and evening a change of bus in Milnsbridge. There was nothing like the congestion. The volume of cars and lorries was nothing like today. Crowthers may have employed the number you quote but on a shift system and not to just at a single mill or site so not all workers arrived en masse.

You state that vehicles tend to bear left after going under the arches to get to the M62. Talking to commuters that’s not what many of them do. They go to Paddock. Not the quickest but the easiest route to drive.

You write you want the good old days to come back. The filth, the stench, the fog along the valley bottom, the cold and damp housing, the Victorian working conditions and management, the waiting around for public transport in all weathers, poor health and the prospect of being dead by the age of 70. No thanks.

As a country we are much better off consigning those times to the history books and dramatisations on the television.

As a number of letter writers have stated, we should be looking forward not backwards.

Building new stations and upgrading railway lines might be part of the answer. However, once people have a car they find it much too convenient. They can move around at times they want, to places they want to go in their little bubble without planning around the vagaries of a public transport system. Which means unless they are going to build a relief road (unlikely given the cost and geography) Milnsbridge is going to be plagued with traffic congestion for years to come.

Markham Weavill

Linthwaite

Liberal ideas ‘a liability’

NICK Clegg’s ideas for recovery are a liability to our country.

Time after time he drags out the issue of tax. More tax seems to be his only way of rectifying the country’s problems. Make the wealthy pay more Income Tax and at the same time place a higher Council Tax on their homes.

Sorry, but this man is a complete fool to tax the very people who do more for Britain than most.

Figures show that the top 1% of income earners paid 24.8% of all income tax which was collected for 2011/12.

This same group’s earnings were just 11.2% of the total. If you start increasing this small band of higher income taxpayers then they will up sticks and leave to a more accommodating country – Switzerland and Monaco spring to mind.

What we should be doing is stopping the likes of Dyson Manufacturing, Burberry Clothing and others moving their entire production to the far east.

If you keep placing a higher tax on these people they have shown they shall move. Getting a fair share of tax is better than getting none. Another problem is the very fact that once the taxes have been collected they are then wasted.

What would be a better idea would be to get two million people back into work who at this moment pay no tax but take from the pot. Can he show some backbone for that task? Thought not.

R J Bray

Shelley

Angry with sleepy MP

I WOULD like all local MPs to stand up in Parliament and insist that the Labour shadow minister Steven Pound is removed from his job.

He was caught on television fast asleep during an emergency debate on the topic of Afghanistan when discussing what should be done after our troops were killed by Afghan police.

This shows how the people in our government really care about our lads out there and that decisions about their safety should have the serious attention of all parties in this very serious position we are in.

What would the parents and friends and all the people in this country grieving at their loss think about this MP?

very concerned

Victor of Kirkburton

What’s in a name?

I SEE we have yet another company putting its name to the home of soccer and rugger – it is the John Smith’s Stadium.

Now, there’s nobody loves the beautiful game more than me, but I do wonder what the average council taxpayer’s reaction is to the affixing of new signage.

Why don’t we simply have signs up with a soccer or a rugger ball on them then it won’t matter whether the hallowed Leeds Road turf is sponsored by McAlpine, Galpharm, John Smith’s or Mickey Mouse Windows.

All us local folk will know whether we want to support the Mighty Terriers or Dalton Dynamoes ...

Leymoor Lad

Cowlersley

Cash against cruelty

MAY we extend our thanks to the hundreds of people who visited the League Against Cruel Sports stall in the Piazza on Saturday.

Altogether we raised £178.48 and collected 231 signatures against the badger cull.

Thank you all for helping us continue the fight against blood sports and other wildlife cruelty.

Nuala Reilly

LACS West Yorkshire Group