I AM really sorry that CragRats has gone into administration because they have been in Holmfirth for 20 years providing employment to lots of local people.

It’s most unfortunate – we can’t do with losing these sort of companies. Myself and the other councillors for the area will get together to see if we can do anything to help to save some or all of the company.

CLR DONALD FIRTH

New Mill, Holme Valley South ward

Support for Huddstock

I WOULD like to express my gratitude to the Huddstock team for putting on this year’s event.

I was one of the few who managed to make it and my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

This was my third visit and each year it seems to grow in stature. The bands were of a very good calibre. It seems such a shame that, this year, the event will take a loss and this will hit the pockets of the organisers who I know work tirelessly.

I feel slightly ashamed that the people of Huddersfield couldn’t get their wellies on and their waterproofs and enjoy this event like the 1,000 of us who bothered.

And to the resident of South Crosland who had put in the complaint, shame on you for nearly scuppering the event. Charity begins at home my friend, as does the community. Remember that before you decide to complain again.

NICK

Crosland Moor

Thanks to strangers

I’M writing this to say a big heartfelt thank you to those who came to my aid in the aftermath of a car accident on Friday afternoon in Meltham.

I don’t know how I would have managed without those acts of kindness towards me.

So thank you to the young man who witnessed the accident and got out of his car to see how I was, instead of just driving away.

Thank you also to Ali who works for the Mount Taxi firm, who came upon the scene a few minutes later.

He got the car and me to the garage across the road with the assistance of two youths and a young lady who was passing.

Grateful thanks also to the staff at Meltham Garage who eventually drove me home safely.

While my car may not survive the experience, I did and what really stays in my mind is that complete strangers were prepared to go out of their way to help me.

With all the dire news these days, these acts of kindness stand out like a shining beacon of light and I feel very grateful for their assistance at that time.

Thank you one and all.

A HAMLETT

Holmfirth

Centre’s success

AS we come to the end of National Volunteers Week, The Nerve Centre would like to honour our gifted team of dedicated volunteers.

Our organisation only survives because of their tremendous support – they enable us to offer a range of activities to people living with neurological conditions and their carers.

The centre also provides information and campaigns for the rights of all living with neurological conditions.

On May 7, The Nerve Centre was awarded a highly commended prize of £5,000 from the GlaxoSmithKline Impact Awards which acknowledged the high standard of work our fantastic team delivers.

Many thanks to everyone involved.

BEVERLEY TAYLOR

Director

Roles of representatives

RETURNING home on the bus on Friday, one of my neighbours leaned across to tell me how appalled she had been when she read of the amount of expenses claimed by some Colne Valley councillors over the past year.

My neighbour acknowledged that these claims were as nothing by comparison with the sums claimed by our local MP.

What does fascinate me is why they have to incur such expenditure in the first place?

We are repeatedly told of the services that our elected representatives offer, in terms of surgeries and casework.

This begs the question, do we elect representatives to deliberate and inform on our behalf or do we elect a hybrid form of social worker?

I thought I knew, but realise now that with the new forms of government the elected representative is not expected to battle and argue on the grounds of policy needs of the people. The executive shall decide.

In the case of Parliament and the local authority, I suspect, our elected representatives have been so emasculated they need to find themselves a role as the hybrid.

Perhaps a New Democratic Agenda will recognise the concentration of power in the executive and try to redress the impotence of councillors and MPs. But, then, perhaps pigs might fly. Whoever gave away power voluntarily?

TONY BOWERS

Slaithwaite

Drivers’ bad behaviour

YET another call for changes at Lockwood bar traffic lights – we can’t cope when it comes to letting others go first.

It is said that even the most civilised can become mad dogs when they get behind the steering wheel.

There are so many examples – Fartown Bar on Bradford Road is a classic

Anywhere the number of lanes are reduced produces the most aggressive behaviour in those who see being overtaken as a personal affront.

The Department for Transport has agonised for years over how to influence this behaviour, so we have ‘merge in turn’ on the approach to Halifax, but we’re not very happy with that.

We still have to close right up to stop somebody under or overtaking and pushing in.

It must be life as we know it, Jim.

RICHARD SMITH

Holmfirth

Top shop volunteers

MANY people I expect will have watched the Charity Shop programme on television which centred on a Save the Children shop in Orpington.

I have to say how very different is that shop from the Save the Children shop in Huddersfield. We have an excellent unpaid shop leader and many helpers, of whom I am one.

True, an amount of donated goods are not used, mostly because they may be out-of-date. There is no sign of the utter rubbish that was taken into the Orpington shop. We are most grateful for those people who think kindly of our charity and bring in their ‘giveaways’. Thank you all so much.

A VOLUNTEER

Huddersfield

MPs ‘don’t get it’

CONGRATULATIONS to the Examiner for putting pressure on local Members of Parliament to explain their expenses claims.

The disclosure from Kali Mountford typifies the current chaos in Westminster. These people just do not get it!

Last year, Kali Mountford attended Parliament on just 34% of possible occasions, spoke just three times and had just one written question.

For this she was paid nearly £65,000 salary and claimed £160,000 in expenses.

She now tells us that she no longer attends Westminster due to a mysterious illness that needs her to walk with a stick.

So, in effect, the residents and businesses of the Colne Valley have no real representation. If she is not well enough to do the job, why does she not resign as anyone else would have to?

But there is no chance of this so long as:

She continues to receive her full salary of £64,766 per annum

Her husband continues to be paid handsomely as her assistant

She will receive severance pay of up to almost £65,000, of which £30,000 will be tax free.

She will receive another payment to wind up her office, plus a generous pension.

She is applying for an ill-health pension.

Does she think we are thick? She claims to have given her second home gains to charity but cannot remember to who or when. She claimed that MPs get nothing for leaving. Yet she tries to come over to the Examiner as an innocent who has done nothing wrong. This is why most people are so angry. These people, who are both public servants and are supposed to represent our interests, take full advantage of the system. They just do not get it.

DAVID BILLINGTON

Shepley

Housing needed now

RATS, drug use, litter, and now arson. Over the past few years the decay of Gelder Terrace and Poplar Street have become a curse on face of Moldgreen as the Examiner (June 6) suggests.

The real disgrace of this debacle is that while there are hundreds of people sofa-surfing in intolerable over-crowded conditions around town, the hundred or so properties in this area have been allowed to rot.

Now we are told that the plans to demolish them and build properties are on hold because of the financial crisis.

When Cabinet meets to discuss this on June 16, they should demand that the Government make capital receipts from the sale of council housing available to complete this much needed Housing Association scheme.

It is about time ordinary people’s needs are taken into consideration in these, the gravest of times.

HANNAH TRAPNELL

Radical Action Network