WE live on Jackroyd Lane, at Newsome and we paid a lot of money for our bungalow, for the view across the fields just below Castle Hill.

We paid for the ‘peace and the quiet’ and for the ‘granny flat’ so we could move with my husband’s Mum and Dad and look after them.

Mum sadly died in November 2007, but we still have Dad to look after.

During the time we have spent at Jackroyd Lane, the road has got continually busier and we have had to complain about the water pressure, which is dismal.

A new housing estate on green belt land at Hall Bower will ruin a beautiful view and put extra strain on the very low resources, which supply Jackroyd Lane and Hall Bower. The fields already have a problem with flooding when it rains.

Kirklees is supposed to be the green, environmentally friendly council, offering the best of rural living, great landscapes with a younger than average population.

Yet they want to take away the view, the green belt land and Newsome Panthers Rugby Club and I believe that Hall Bower Cricket Club and pitch is also under threat.

Both of these are very well supported clubs and it is somewhere for the young people of this area to keep fit. It gives them a interest.

In the Examiner it states that Kirklees Council have extended the deadline for comments to April 17.

I for one will state that they kept this new development very quiet and only let people know just before the Easter holidays, so it would give us even less time to get our comments in!

The Kirklees area has lots of empty houses. Why can’t these be redeveloped? Money is tight, people are struggling to keep up with the mortgages and yet they are going to build even more houses which people can’t afford to buy.

We can’t understand it, it would be building on top of old mine shafts and quarries.

Can I ask if they have taken into account the fact that there are public ‘rights of way’ and beautiful walks across where they want to build?

Is it not true that public rights of way still have to be left in place even when you build new housing estates?

Well, they you are going to have problems keeping to that as the landscape is riddled with routes across where they are thinking of building.

Green belt land should be kept ‘green belt’, that’s what we say!

SYLVIA, MAURICE AND JACK

Newsome

Robin Hood history

YOU have half a story here, re: the Robin Hood article in the Examiner, April 14.

Some years before he died, Sir John Armitage, (whose family had lived at Kirklees Hall since the 13th century) showed me the grave which you illustrate, which he described as a Victorian addition.

He pointed to a large, rounded boulder nearby – ‘Now THAT is Robin Hood’s gravestone’, he said and went on to relate that, within his memory, locals people had been in the habit of breaking off a fragment of the stone which they carried in their pockets as a prevention against toothache.

At the time, I measured the distance from the priory remains to the grave and found it to be 800 yards – a remarkable distance for a robust bowman and impossible, one would think, for an elderly, sick man.

However, if an archer wanted distance rather than accuracy he would lie on his back and use the whole power of his body to draw the string – so perhaps the legend might just be given a very slight touch of authenticity.

Little John is buried in the churchyard at Hathersage – not very far away – and his bow had been preserved from time immemorial at Cannon Hall near Wakefield.

However, the owners of the hall have recently taken it away to Scotland, with nobody protesting, it seems, about this loss of our heritage.

ARTHUR QUARMBY

Holme

Thanks for generosity

ON behalf of everyone at Kirkwood Hospice, I would like to thank all customers and staff of Marks & Spencer in Huddersfield for their generosity on Good Friday.

In total, customers of the store donated a staggering £924 when our team of volunteers worked extremely hard packing their shopping.

This is the sixth successive year that we have had the opportunity to raise funds in this way and I continued to be astounded by everyone’s generosity.

In 2009, it will cost the Hospice more than £3.9m to provide its services and more than £3.2m needs to be raised from voluntary sources.

Although this is a huge amount of money to raise every year, it is thanks to the generosity of our supporters that Kirkwood is able to continue to provide its services, free of charge, to the people of Kirklees facing life-threatening illnesses.

A big thank you again to everyone who was involved.

SUSAN MARSDEN

Retail Co-ordinator, Kirkwood Hospice

Toilet troubles in park

ON Easter Saturday, my family and I decided to visit Greenhead Park as there were attractions on for Easter.

We had a two-and-a-half-year-old with us, so we went into the playground, around the funfair and also on the miniature train, all of which were thoroughly enjoyed.

But when she wanted to go to the toilet by the café, it was impossible to take her in.

My daughter had been in earlier and said they were dirty and not very nice, but when my grand-daughter wanted to use the toilet, what else can you do but head for them?

A lady was coming out and said to me: “Whatever you do, don’t take her in there, they are disgusting.”

The only alternative was to take her as much out of sight as possible by a tree. How do you explain to this two-and-a-half-year-old that, although they have been taught to use a toilet, that they cannot go in due to the disgusting state?

If Kirklees want us to use their parks, surely they should make certain that all the toilets are in a usable condition?

There were portable ones at the bottom of the steps leading to the memorial, but they were too far away.

CONCERNED GRANDPARENT

Huddersfield

MPs need staff

WITH regard to your recent articles on MPs’ allowances, could I emphasise that I know of no other place of work where a person’s office, desk and support staff are regarded as ‘expenses’.

As many of your readers will know, MPs’ staff are often the first port of call for often desperate constituents at the end of their tether.

They are there to assist the service given by hardworking MPs like Barry Sheerman and Kali Mountford and shouldn’t be seen as a ‘perk’ of the job.

DAN WHITTLE

Chairman of the MPs’ Staff Branch of Unite union

Housing headaches

KIRKLEES Council are proposing to build on ‘green field’ areas of local importance such as the land near Castle Hill and areas of natural beauty to satisfy the Government’s requirements with, I guess, the attitude that ‘we have to build somewhere’!

And yet, week after week, we see in the Examiner and Weekly News items regarding planning for supermarkets, the Waterfront Quarter etc. How much of this required housing could be allocated in these areas?

Surely this is more important than yet another supermarket, another student accommodation unit or another new commercial or retail complex.

Please, Kirklees Council prioritise in favour of Kirklees residents. We are your paymasters.

ALBERT BUCKENHAM

Huddersfield

Greenway’s good points

AS my house overlooks Meltham Greenway, I take frequent walks along its length.

I have been using this path up to the present day from when it was an uneven and sometimes unsafe trail following the disused railway line.

I must disagree with the report in the Examiner on Friday April 10, which stated that ‘beer cans, bottles and rubbish left behind on the path are a blight on the area’ also that there was a ‘growing problem with dog fouling’.This is not true.

The footpath is a safe and clean environment, of which the residents of Meltham are proud.

Much has been done by local people, in open consultations with Kirklees and Meltham Town Council, to address the minor problems encountered over the years.

A team of volunteers keeps the path tidy and free from rubbish regularly. Notices have been put up reminding people, including dog owners, to dispose of all rubbish sensibly. Extra bins have been provided by the council for this purpose and are well used.

The police have crushed trail bikes, however, on a positive note there are moves towards finding places for people on bikes to go to enjoy themselves safely, legally and without disturbing others.

As regards these bikes, my neighbours and I agree there are fewer on the Greenway since it opened, because it is not a dirt track any more.

Everyone I speak to says how lovely the Greenway is; the many that come down here daily would not do so if it was anything like the description in the Examiner article.

But, do not simply believe the words of Jane Rose or me – come here and judge for yourself.

REV BRIAN WALTERS

Meltham