ONCE again we are treated to more leaks regarding the new Tesco store (Examiner, March 14) in answer to which we get the usual flannel from Clr Mehboob Khan.

We now know that Kirklees Council cannot pull out of the deal without paying compensation and that some councillors have concerns about the store’s design.

The amount paid for the site does not cover the cost of the new sports centre, and we the local taxpayers are not to know our level of contribution either.

So much for democracy. If our councillors have nothing to hide, why do we always have to resort to the Freedom of Information Act to get information?

We are told that Tesco are ‘hard-nosed’. They can afford to be when one views the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures, which show food price inflation in January running at 6.3% in the UK.

The OECD states that the maximum justifiable increase due to commodity rises is 3.5% so once again neither local or national government appear to have any control over these retail giants.

The only recourse is, in my view, for the public of Huddersfield (not Kirklees, please note) to vote with their feet and show Tesco we can shop elsewhere and are not dependent on them even if KMC is.

We should be campaigning for openness on this issue so we, the public, can judge the true facts of the matter and show Tesco the level of ill-feeling locally.

R Horsfall

Honley

Less for everybody

THE gravy train of some Kirklees Council’s executives continues as highlighted by the report in the Examiner on March 11 regarding the salary and expenses received by Ms Julie Alderson during her sojourn as interim Director of Resources for a period of four months.

This appointment could and should have been avoided and costs saved by promoting a senior manager from within Kirklees for this interim period.

It was an ideal opportunity to ascertain the quality of senior staff.

As this was not done does this imply the senior managers who are currently employed do not have the qualifications, knowledge, experience or ambition to show they were capable to carry out the difficult task?

While on the subject of Kirklees Council executives and managers, I can’t recall seeing any financial cutbacks being imposed upon them. Are there any?

Personally I have become totally disillusioned by the exposures in relation to salaries and expenses of politicians and civil servants both nationally and local.

When are they going to join the real world and stop living in cloud cuckoo land, and when are our elected representatives going to take action to stop this gravy train from gaining momentum?

Roll on the forthcoming elections which will allow the council tax payers of Kirklees to show their disgust at the ostrich-like attitude being taken by both public servants and councillors when the vast majority of the council tax payers are suffering fiscal restraints

Roger Carter

Lindley

Built to confuse

FUNNY, but whenever I visit the Market Hall, the last thing that occurs to me is to admire the hyperbolic paraboloid shells forming its roof.

If I chance to look up, my view is of large ugly slabs of bare concrete, with the occasional puny electric fan, presumably installed to prevent the chocolate melting during warm weather.

What continually irritates me about this awful building is that it is almost impossible to find the stall you want, as there are absolutely no points of reference to help you to negotiate the maze.

My only method of deciding which way I am facing is to look for the outline of the Town Hall through the windows.

Otherwise, I only ever find what I want by chance, as I have, as only an occasional visitor, no idea of the relative position of the stalls.

More often than not I am on the wrong side of the building altogether.

The original indoor market had a most useful mezzanine from which you could see the layout of the hall.

This place is like a nightmarish IKEA without the arrows on the floor.

The idea that it is some kind of architectural showpiece hardly stops it from being the most customer-unfriendly building I have come across.

As for the sculpted murals – whose brilliant idea was it to plant a load of trees in front of them?

Alan Starr

Golcar

Vote loser

I GO to the sports centre three times a week and understand Kirklees Council has decided not to have a bowling green in the new sports centre to be built at Springwood.

Do these people realise they are depriving hundreds of people of the joy of playing the game of bowls?

A lot of these people are pensioners and the council is taking away their pleasure.

Wake up Kirklees Council. If you get rid of all these activities, we might just as well not bother to vote for any of you.

Mrs M Whitehouse

Oakes

Long memories

I WAS gobsmacked by the rather disingenuous comments from Alan Brooke about the voice of the people ultimately winning through.

He used the comparison with current events in the countries of North Africa. (Letters, Saturday 26 February).

But, excuse me, is this not the same Alan Brooke whose former hero and mentor, Arthur Scargill, was being financed by a certain Gaddafi and also a certain Castro?

Some chance of the voices of their people being heard in those days!

Some of us have long memories Mr Brooke.

GB

Shepley

Impact unclear

STAFF and students at Kirklees College may well have fully embraced and embedded equality and diversity (Examiner February 25) at level one – but the impact for students remains unclear.

Exactly how does a policy imposedŠ by outsiders Šnarrow Šlocal educational gaps between rich and poor, fluent and nervous, motivated and bored, talented and less able, etc?

Doesn’t diversity ever resist professionals’ attempts to embrace her, or is Šit simply a matter of persistently reducing class sizes?

ŠGarfi

Road marking lunacy

I AM absolutely dumbfounded at Kirklees Council’s lack of wisdom regarding Wakefield Road, Aspley.

After many complaints regarding dangerous potholes in the Examiner, the council has at last managed to re-surface the road and fill in the potholes – a vast improvement one would think.

However, in its wisdom the council has now changed the markings at the junction of Wakefield Road and Silver Street to make the left lane left turn only.

Never in all the years I have lived here have I seen a problem for traffic to turn left on Silver Street, however, I have to sit in traffic all along Wakefield Road every night due to congestion leaving the town centre.

We now have a situation where all the traffic leaving Huddersfield along Wakefield Road has to get into one lane for the junction with Silver Street, only to go back to two lanes immediately afterwards.

Who on earth came up with this idea? All I can see here is an accident waiting to happen.

Cars will ignore the left turn sign and then if someone comes back into the left lane a collision is inevitable.

In addition we will have more traffic build-up all the way back to Shore Head and beyond because all the traffic has to get into one lane. Sheer lunacy! And for what reason?

How many cars turn left into Silver Street at rush hour to warrant a lane to themselves?

Prior to the re-surfacing this sign was straight on or left turn as is the one before it. Why on earth has it been changed?

This makes no sense whatsoever and the sooner the man from the council with the paint pot gets out and repaints it using common sense the better. Come on Kirklees, get a grip, before someone gets injured

Mike Burke

Grange Moor