THE combination of incompetence, insensitivity and arrogance which has become the hallmark of Kirklees Council apparently knows no bounds.
The proposal to illuminate St George’s Square is yet another crackpot idea of unelected officials who believe that public money is there solely for their own self-glorifying pet schemes.
Days after confessing that the wind generators at the Civic Centre cost more to run than they earn, the council is proposing to squander yet more electricity on a tawdry project which will turn the square into a Hollywood film set.
The council’s green credentials and exhortations to save energy are revealed for what they are – just gesture politics unsupported by any real concern for the environment.
And what of the buildings?
Lights and cables will have to be screwed or bolted onto the stone work.
How can this show respect for our architectural heritage.
In January 1858 an anonymous contributor wrote a letter to the Huddersfield Chronicle on ‘Huddersfield and its Architecture’ complaining that the layout of the Square did not do justice to the buildings.
He observed: “... every stranger who alights from the railway must be filled with amazement that so much money could have been expended and so ineffective as a result’.
A hundred and fifty years on apparently little has changed, except the greater Philistinism and conceit of those in charge of our built environment.
Alan Brooke
Honley
Bus lay-by needed
REGARDING the Leeds Road bus lane farce (Examiner, August 19) it’s no more congested than anywhere else in rush hour periods where traffic will back up while a bus makes a stop and then the flow continues to the next stop and so on.
Highways could just put in a strategically placed bus lay-by in order to let traffic flow.
Alternatively, the little used cycle lane could be utilised and why not?
We are not a nation of cyclists like the Dutch, who incidentally run their lanes alongside and independent of the highways – and free of parked up vehicles.
Follow the money – did you know each metre of cycle lane generates an income from the EU coffers which is why they are in all manner of ridiculous and useless places and some are only two metres in length.
Also, cutting carbon emissions generates another income but by stifling the steady flow of moving traffic the Highways department are effectively contributing to it.
Mr Corcoran
Lockwood
Don’t ruin our town hall too
AFTER the last few years of disastrous decisions, is anyone worried about the Town Hall steps?
What is happening to the hall behind the boarding covering it?
What is happening to our stone steps and surrounding stonework?
I hope it’s not going the same way as St George’s Square.
Hazel Spencer
Huddersfield
Why is it allowed?
IN reference to your article, Examiner, August 20, ‘Smokers still gathering at hospital door’, it would be very interesting to know why a patient with an intravenous infusion in situ is allowed to be away from the ward.
Who would be responsible if there was an incident where the patient suffered further trauma or developed a thrombosis or an infection?
The whole scenario indicates total lack of discipline within the NHS.
G & J Widdop
Retired Nurses, Meltham
Breaking the law
IT is an individual’s prerogative if they decide to smoke, but surely not when it jeopardises the health of innocent people.
The current practice of allowing patients and visitors to smoke at the entrance to the HRI is nothing to do with human rights – it is breaking the law.
I notice from the photograph that two patients have been allowed to leave a clinical ward with hospital equipment which is then contaminated by the external environment.
Surely this is an irresponsible practice that must be addressed as a priority.
As visitors we are encouraged to use gel on our hands on entering and leaving the premises.
What is the point when management are ignoring basic health and safety procedures and risking the health and welfare of other patients and visitors?
The hospital trust must face up to its responsibilities and manage the ‘business’ professionally.
Grahame Heap
Oakes
Securing jobs is a must
IN reply to P Schofield’s letter (Mailbag, August 17) I have to take issue with several points.
He/she was right to say that an application for houses was rejected because there were indeed brownfield sites available in Lindley but the school site and the Bovis site have now been fully developed.
I don’t know how Clr McBride can be held responsible for companies taking an interest in Lindley or any other site. The present company approached the Conservative administration last year – Clr Ken Sims freely admitted that he knew of their approaches.
Another slightly disingenuous argument is that this area is a ‘lung’ for either Lindley or Huddersfield.
This farmland site is on the edge of Green Belt, open to every wind that blows and blasted by the noise of the M62.
As much as I would like to see it remain as grazing, it could never be sensibly described as a lung for Lindley or anywhere else.
The writer asks if we really need a Business Park on a greenfield site – I assume he means a data campus – and the answer to that is yes and no.
Yes, we desperately need both the construction jobs and the technical graduate jobs, but no, we would not choose to have them on a greenfield site.
Kirklees is one of the top authorities for IT business – over 6% of all our businesses are high tech companies employing over 11,000 local residents. We have a first class university leading this sector and we would like more of the 250 people who graduate each year with IT degrees to find jobs locally.
Sadly Kirklees is generally a low wage, low skill economy and we need more well paid graduate jobs both to keep our brightest young people and to stimulate our local economy.
As a councillor I have a duty to all residents to try to find somewhere else for these much needed jobs to locate.
A major bank looked at Kirklees for a data campus last year and turned us down in favour of York – as York’s economy is still as buoyant as ever and our town centres’ decline, I found this very depressing.
What is needed is about 18 hectares of land with good road access.
Database industries are new and data campuses are being developed and each company wants its own building but needs security because of the personal and fiscal data each company holds.
I have asked officers to do a trawl of all other Kirklees sites which are currently vacant and which would meet their requirements.
These industries are particularly attractive to young people and I will campaign tirelessly to try to find them jobs locally.
I am amazed that P Schofield considers IT business to be ‘grandiose’, anything less intrusive I find hard to imagine but then, apart from the allergy to pink granite, I don’t agree with much of what he/she says either.
Christine Stanfield
Lib Dem Councillor, Lindley Ward
Run on a Blackberry
IT was reported that Peter Mandelson had taken over the running of the country from Harriet Harman, with the help of his Blackberry, wait for it, from Corfu.
Once again these statements beggar belief.
What kind of a shambolic set up is this country really in?
Before we know it this Britain of ours and everything it’s ever stood for will have completely disappeared down the pub, swallowed up in the ‘European Super State’ which it seems has been the real idea since its inception.
Then it was known as the Common Market and people were conned into voting for it as it was portrayed as only about trade.
Doesn’t the above way of doing things sound familiar? Britain? Never heard of it.
Brenda Holroyd
Netherthong
Think of us please
I’M not surprised by Friday’s front page story ‘Badge of dishonour’.
As someone who genuinely needs a blue badge I find it frustrating that my daughter can never park in a disabled space in the town centre when I am with her because they are already being used by people without blue badges.
Many people must think ‘I’ll only be 10 minutes’ so park there but sadly it’s no help for me nor many like me.
Will people please think before they decide to park in a disabled space.
Mrs E Lawson
Birkby
