MR B Lawrence is dissatisfied (Closing the town?, Mailbag, January 25) and he says everything is Kirklees Councils fault. I hope he feels better for getting that off his chest but he makes a number of serious mistakes.
First, he thinks business rates are exorbitant. Perhaps so, but they are 100% controlled by central government, not by the council.
If the council could set its own business rates then we could have a meaningful discussion about what their level should be.
In that circumstance, there should also be a national system of compensation of those council areas with particular economic problems and with little business to provide income for local services.
Mr Lawrence regards local council tax levels as swingeing. It is possible that he is, like most of us, occupying a modest property at or below the middle tax band. Anyone in this group is over-taxed.
With the abolition of domestic rates, this middle group has had to pay more than their fair share of local taxation to make up for the reduced sums payable by the very rich.
Because rates were more closely related to ability to pay, they were much fairer than council tax. No wonder many citizens are feeling the burden imposed by the change, which was introduced by a Conservation government. We have never all been in it together.
We should be campaigning for the replacement of council tax by something comparable with the rates.
When it comes to car parking charges and services like public toilets, libraries and museums, Kirklees Council is suffering massive and unfair cuts in government grants as well having to cope with central government controls over council tax.
Realistically, it does not have the option of setting a deficit budget. It is, therefore, left with no choice but to examine all services for cuts and to seek ways of raising significant income from charges so it can balance its budget.
Parking charges as long as they are not so high as to disadvantage our area in competition with other areas are just one way of obtaining income that can be used to prevent some services closing down altogether.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of articles in the Examiner about how Kirklees Council is using some of its limited resources to regenerate our town centre and to support local businesses and employment.
I fear the Governments latest financial restrictions and its failures to stimulate the national economy will lead to further cuts in both council and national government services.
All sections of the community will suffer from that, but the blame for it lies with national government. The Tories would love it if local people made the mistake of using the council as a scapegoat for the Tory-led Governments harmful economic policies.
I trust Mr Lawrence does not intend to lead people in the wrong decision.
Michael Hutchinson
Mirfield
Dirty old town
IF Im travelling on the top deck of a bus its impossible not to notice all the accumulated rubbish on the highways and byways in both Kirklees and Calderdale.
It really is an eyesore. Theres the pebble-dashing of chewing gum on pavements and dog dirt on the streets, parks and childrens play areas.
The shrubbery at the top of Chapel Hill, near where I live, is in a disgusting state and will get worse with all the takeaway shops when the new college opens. Even the Civic Centre area looks neglected with cigarette stubs all around the immediate area of the magistrates court.
This council cannot blame anyone else for this state of affairs.
Anthony Smith
Springwood
Laws too lenient
I CAN understand the family of Gary Pedelty (Richard Mail jailed for four years for drink-drive horror crash, Examiner, January 28) feeling angry over for the paltry sentence of the person who got four years for drink driving, speeding at 75mph in a 60mph zone and killing their son.
If that is the full force of the law for that kind of motoring office, then its some law!
J C Ward
Scissett
Holocaust memories
I WOULD like to thank Kirklees Council for the invitation to its well-organised Holocaust Memorial Day. It brought back many memories.
I was a candidate for extermination after being accused of forming the Polish (youth) Legion. I managed to escape by luck but my college friend and teacher didnt and both of them lasted only one month in the special political unit.
Originally, Auschwitz was created to eliminate the Polish intelligentsia and managed to kill 500,000 of them.
Tony Sosna
Huddersfield
Fouling by dogs
I AM most pleased that the council is at last getting tough with dog owners who are letting their dogs foul public places and are not cleaning the mess up.
I have complained about this for over 30 years, so lets hope this time it works. Some of the money would help to save some of the toilets we are told will close this year.
The community medicine specialist at Manchester University has suggested re-introducing dog licences, the extra revenue being used to pay for dog wardens.
We have six million dogs in Britain depositing 100 tonnes of excrement each day.
If dog owners kept their dogs in their own gardens until theyd done their business and then took them for exercise, a lot of the problems, including the disease of toxocariasis, would diminish.
H Barrowclough
Waterloo
Burton by-election
MIKE Greetham of Highburton questions why Kirkburton Parish Council finances are being wasted on three parish by-elections in February this year (Costly democracy, Mailbag, January 28).
The answer is because the Conservatives have specifically called for these by-elections to take place rather than let the Parish Council fill the vacancies by co-option at nil cost.
They have called the by-elections for two seats in Kirkburton and one in Shepley. In Kirkburton there are two parish seats available but despite calling this costly by-election they have been able to find only one candidate.
The candidate the Conservatives have chosen is Adrian Murphy, a Kirklees councillor who is up for re-election in May.
Over the past years he has never shown any particular interest in the Parish Council and was always a poor attendee of meetings when he was on the Parish Council. You are forced to think that this is not a genuine desire to be a Parish Councillor working on local projects but probably a cynical political ploy with one eye on the Kirklees Elections in May.
John Taylor is standing as the Conservative Party candidate in the Shepley ward. In the Shepley Village Magazine he refers to stepping down as a parish councillor last year and his retirement from the role.
Actually he never stepped down. He lost his seat because he didnt attend for a period of over six months and as such under Parish Council rules was removed from office. He had been a very poor attendee of meetings attending only 11 meetings out of a possible 48 in his last 2 years of office.
To avoid a by-election following John Taylors vacancy, in 2010 the Green Party supported the co-option of Clr Adrian Murphy to the Parish Council for Shepley. Ironically, he was also a very poor attendee of Parish Council meetings, turning up to only 12 meetings out of a possible 35 in his two years of office.
John Taylor said he wanted to avoid the costs of a By-Election by being co-opted onto the Council. Effectively he was saying to us that we had to co-opt him, despite his unreliability and equally poor attendance record, or the Conservatives would call a By-Election which in the end was what they did. This by-election, along with the Kirkburton, one, takes s8,000 out of the Parish Councils s122,000 budget and out of funds that we could use to benefit the communities we represent. The real irony of this is that the other Conservative parish councillor for Shepley who was elected last May has attended five out of a possible 25 meetings this year.
It would be a shame indeed if the Conservatives were rewarded for playing politics with local peoples money and for seeking to mislead people over their role in calling these by-elections.
What would you have spent s8,000 on in your village?
Clr Andrew Cooper
Kirkburton Parish Councillor, Farnley Tyas and Thurstonland
Amazing concert
ON Saturday I had the privilege of attending a concert in Huddersfield Town Hall. The concert was in aid of my charity appeal and I have to say, it was absolutely amazing.
The youngsters from the Halifax Young Singers were wonderful and I would like to thank them publicly for giving up their free time to come and sing for us.
I would also say the same about the Meredith Family and Ellie who also gave their time and gave the audience a taste of Les Miserables. They were truly wonderful and turned what was always going to be a first class concert into a remarkable experience enjoyed by everyone.
As for the Brighouse and Rastrick Band, well what can I say about the best band in the land! I can think of many superlatives but superb will have to do.
So a great big thank you to them and, of course, to Paul and Julie Beaumont for making this possible, to the man who made the evening flow so well, our compšre Jon Hammond, who superbly provided the glue which linked everything together. He was a brilliant.
And finally to all who came on Saturday many thanks for supporting the Mayors Charity, which is of course the Forget Me Not Childrens Hospice.
I will remember this wonderful evening for a long time and it will certainly go down as one of the highlights of my Mayoral year.
Before I close I must of course give my thanks to Gina Fielding, the volunteers who sold raffle tickets and all involved in organising this event you were all fantastic!
Clr Eric Firth
Mayor of Kirklees
Speed cameras
ON the subject of the safety concerns of parents on Bradley Road despite traffic calming methods being installed and a speed limit of 40mph, there have been many fatalities and accidents on this stretch of road. Also a college with hundreds of students is situated on this very busy road.
I am sure that if speed cameras were installed they would in a very short period of time create enough revenue (paid in fines) to pay for a much needed pedestrian crossing.
Polly Morgan
Newsopinion
Examiner letters: February 2 2012
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