LATELY, local villages (Birdsedge, Denby Dale, Grange Moor) have been fighting wind turbine planning applications, which seem to be growing ever more rapidly in number.
Shelley residents now find out at the 11th hour that four turbines 120ft high have been proposed for erection.
These are not for the benefit of the village to share in free/cheap electricity. No, these are being built for the financial benefit of those individuals concerned.
It would not surprise me if it was not the same contracting company who has made application for all four.
I can understand some farmers wishing to have a turbine to generate energy to run their farming equipment – but the turbines proposed are far above those needs.
The proposed turbines will generate more than enough for their needs. They will sell the surplus electricity into the National Grid for profit, while the villagers will have to put up with the noise pollution and the blot on the landscape.
Local walks will be blighted as they pass close by the proposed turbines, two of which have already received the go-ahead from Planning.
The way these types of planning applications are notified to the public needs to be reassessed. A notice on a lamp post is not adequate and makes you seriously wonder if this is not extremely underhanded and sneaky. These are not conservatories or extensions to domestic buildings.
Applications seem to be going in thick and fast. Could this be because of the Private Members’ Bill which is currently at the committee stage in the House of Lords?
This proposes that no wind farm should be built within 1.5 miles of domestic properties.
The size of turbines affects more than those that live close by. The visual effect will be for miles. And turbines this size are not about clean energy or care for the environment, they are simply about greed.
We can now say goodbye to Shelley ever winning the Village of the Year award for a second time.
R J Bray
Shelley
Local history
IT was pleasing to see the Examiner’s coverage ofŠEsther Moriarty’s research on Huddersfield’s 19th century Irish community (Family History, October 12).
Dr Moriarty will be outlining her findings to Huddersfield Local History Society at one of our monthly talks, which are open to the public, early in the New Year ( February 27).
The society takes an interest in the history of all the communities that have made their home in Huddersfield – our most recent annual journal, for example, included a summary ofŠNafhesa Ali’s oral history of South Asian immigration to the town since the 1950s, as well as considering the Anglian settlement of the area over 1,000 years earlier!Š Š
Members of all the town’s communities are most welcome to join us, and we would be pleased to hear from anybody else who is researching or recording their histories.Š
We can be contacted by email at huddshistory@gmail.com and there is more information about our talks and publications on our website, www.huddersfieldhistory.org.uk
David Griffiths
Huddersfield Local History Society
Economy U-turn
DEPUTY Prime Minister Clegg and Business Secretary Cable offer a £2m Huddersfield business boost ... Ah yes.
Aren’t these the same politicians who denigrated attempts by previous governments to use public funds, saying that the public sector didn’t understand the private sector?
They are betting that wind turbines are the ‘sunrise’ industry of the future. If that’s the case why over the past 18 months has this ConDem government allowed a number of firms at the leading edge of the technology to go into bankruptcy or move their manufacturing bases abroad?
I hear the screeching of brakes and smell the burning rubber as more politicians do a 180 degree U-turn on economic policy.
I believe the electorate are intelligent enough to see through the attempts of this government to throw a few scraps to the starving and will deal with them accordingly at the ballot box both locally and nationally.
Markham Weavill
Linthwaite
Caring hospital
AFTER having read an article in the Sunday Times about the quality of hospital care I felt that I had to write and say how lucky we are in Huddersfield to have such a caring hospital and staff.
My mother has been in the infirmary three times and all three times admitted to Surgical Assessment Unit and then to Ward 15. Michelle, the sister on SAU, is kind and considerate and always kept us up to date when we enquired.
Ward 15 with Shelagh as the sister, is a fantastic ward and the care, attention and respect for her patients is second to none. My mother is elderly and never once did we feel she was neglected.
On Ward 15 the staff are dedicated, the patients always come first and as relatives we are always rung and kept up to date at visiting times.
My mother had full assistance with a wash each day, her feet soaked in bubbly water each day, which to an 80-year old was such a treat.
If she did not like her meals they were changed so she had something to eat at all times and her meals were recorded on a food diary. Ward 15, like SAU, is immaculately clean including the bathrooms.
On discharge we were kept up to date with all changes and Shelagh ensured that my mother was seen by the occupational therapist before going home to make sure everything was safe for her return home.
These two wards are a credit and are the complete opposite to the awful picture painted by some reports.
A big thank you to both wards for being so caring and being everything that we expect from our NHS.
Mrs Wood
Linthwaite
First aid
READING of your stroke victim who was left unaided in Market Street (Examiner, October 12) prompts me to write that my experience when taken ill in Morrisons at Waterloo a few days ago could not have been more different.
The ladies on the staff could not have been more solicitous, and fellow customers also showed concern.
I am most grateful to you all, and of course to those who are continuing to help.
F J Sheard
Almondbury
Illegal parkers
I SUGGEST Kirklees Council CCTV parking enforcement vehicle, which has already snared hundreds of illegally-parked motorists, ought to visit Stile Common Road at Primrose Hill.
People are not happy just parking on our doorsteps (down Prince Street) – they are also parking on the footpath on Stile Common Road, making it awkward for people walking along but also for the bus stop. The cars park both sides of the road.
BG
Primrose Hill
Grimescar threat
I WAS shocked and dismayed to learn of the massive threat to the Grimescar Valley from The Northern Gateway plans of Thornhill Estates (Examiner, October 8).
The historian Hobkirk writes of St John’s Church, Birkby: “Situated almost in the country surrounded by pasture land and backed to the north by Fixby Hill and the Grimescar Valley ...”
How, why, when and where can this green and pleasant valley be allowed to be designated for housing?
Attempts have been made to spoil the valley before.
In the 19th century a railway was planned with a line up the Grimescar Valley with a tunnel under the Ainleys to Elland.
A spur line from Grimescar and a tunnel under Marsh would have joined the Manchester line at Longwood.
A massive cloud burst occurred towards the end of the 19th century. The streams became a raging torrent and Middlemiss Mill boiler house and engine house were flooded.
Norman park was also flooded and a circular tunnel was constructed under Spaines Road to prevent a recurrence.
About seven years ago one Friday, there was a cloud burst which washed out the surface of the Grimescar Path and a crater at least two feet deep was created.
Kirklees were obliged to close the path for safety reasons. I complained long and diligently until the council reinstated the path and did an excellent job. A gate was provided at the Birkby end. However, there was no gate at the Burn Road end.
I was worried about 4x4s and motor cycles with their fat tyres destroying the surface again. I campaigned again and the council eventually provided a gate at Burn Road.
Having spent all this public money in reinstating the valley, why must the council vote to destroy this beautiful beautiful green and pleasant area?
AA
Birkby
Land and money
I WAS glad to see that Fixby Golf Club has come out against the Northern Gateway even though it would include a multimillion pound revamp of their facility.
Apart from houses, Thornhill Estates feels that its offices and shops will bring £180m in investment to Huddersfield.
It will also help to turn the town centre into a ghost town, fit only for the likes of Alex and his Droogs from Clockwork Orange.
I was shocked to discover that, although the Government is reducing its funding to councils, they are to make substantial payments to those councils which release Green Belt land without delay.
This makes me very concerned, in that KMC owns a lot of green fields, which they bought from Sir John Ramsden in 1921, such as those in the Bowerhouses area.
If the Northern Gateway plan is passed, it will secure nearly half a billion pounds for Thornhill Estates, at the flick of a pen.
It is clear that emotive bleatings about rare bats will not stop a proposed development unless certified by the Bat Conservation Trust.
So I am making no such claims for Lindley Moor, even though bats have roosted in old barns at Weatherhill, the tower at Gatesgarth House, and the now derelict Haigh Cross Farm.
Presumably no work can commence at Clayton Fields, Lindley Moor, or the Northern Gateway until after the builders have obtained BCT clearance documents?
There are now many besides myself eager to see a full explanation from KMC Planning Departmentwithout delay.
Stephen Priest
Newsome
Food labelling
I RECENTLY read an article about food labelling and that certain additives to food can cause hyperactivity in children.
We all know too much caffeine can cause insomnia. But although we read the additives in food produces, what do they mean to the lay person? Would it be more explicable if it was written in terms that people could understand: ‘This food may cause insomnia’ etc. Simply be more specific with the details if they are going to be on the labels.
Colin Vause
Marsh
