KIRKLEES Council has approved a £100,000 plan for a camera car to prowl the district looking for inconsiderate motorists (Examiner, January 5).

Well, if it comes up Rowley Lane, Hermitage Park, and outside Rowley Lane J I & N school in Lepton it will not have far to prowl.

Here, inconsiderate motorists who are dropping children off for school cause chaos and frustration for local residents, other motorists and buses.

They actually park on T junctions and the pavements nearby, double park, open car doors for children to alight into the line of traffic and park on double yellow lines and the yellow diagonal no-parking box at the school entrance.

Between 8.30am to 9am and 3.15pm and 4pm these areas are severely congested. Despite Rowley Hill WMC offering the use of their car park, it has not alleviated the problem.

However, if these inconsiderate motorists are hit in the pocket with a £70 penalty fine that may do the trick.

S Barraclough

Lepton

Joined up thinking

WHERE I live there is a bus to town in the morning Šat 5.45am and two an hour later at 6.45am.

If I get the 363 from the 6.45am buses on any given day I would miss the Grand Central direct train to London from Brighouse about half the time.

If that train left its first stop five minutes later and made those five minutes up on the direct part of its route it would be possible to get it from the 07.01am 363 most days.

It is difficult to know who is at fault – Grand Central for going by the timetable as set out by WYPTE (METRO), rather than First’s actual performance, or FirstBus for not having reliable actual service data available as their first timing point for the 363 is somewhere after theŠrelevant stop.

As it is, if I really needed to use the service I should have no option but to set off a full hour earlier then necessary – in which case I may as well walk –Šor toŠuse a taxi or other private transport for at least some of the journey to get to Brighouse station on time, as I could not guarantee the 363 would get me there on the day for which I had booked a ticket.

Not all members of the public are in a position to walk, obviously.

I think this nicely illustrates what you were saying about public transport in your leader column on Monday, January 10.

HB

Huddersfield

Windmill madness

I HOPE that Clr Andrew Cooper and all those who believe in wind power took notice of Look North’s recent exposé which showed that over the past two months wind turbines have provided virtually no electricity.

Added to this, international studies have determined over the years that, on average, these monstrosities at their maximum only work 23% of the time.

When we consider that international research also determined that these white elephants need completely replacing in less than 20 years from being built (wear-out of components is high), we the taxpayers will have to pay out billions again over the next 20 years to simply keep them going.

This strategy devised by the former Labour government and continued now by the present coalition government is sheer madness.

It is also remarkable that the so-called wise men of Whitehall, who advise government, are proposing to commit £10bn to the construction of a single nuclear power station.

This new station will have major nuclear waste problems in the years to come, most probably costing the taxpayers again another £10bn to get rid of it, and will only provide at the best, 5% of our future electricity needs.

For in this respect, a scheme put forward to government for a hydro-electric scheme that would cut shipping costs substantially, has the same cost but will provide the UK with 10% of its electricity needs in perpetuity.

This would have been clean energy with no toxic waste and would have lasted forever once built with very little maintenance at all.

Are we crazy in this country and just like throwing taxpayers’ money away as though it was going out of fashion?

It certainly seems that way to me or is it there are some very powerful lobby groups doing very nicely indeed out of this old codswallop?

The Green Party should be backing this hydro scheme, not stupid wind turbines that have a bottomless pit and appetite for continual finance.

Our town planners and Kirklees councillors should take note of all these facts when giving the ‘green’ light to these schemes, as they invariably do!

But I have to say that I was happy to see that at least David Brown’s is getting some work out of this stupidity (Examiner, January 8).

For if politicians are so stupid to see wind as the Holy Grail, at least Huddersfield is getting something out of it.

A sane world? I think not when it comes to spending our hard-earned tax.

It’s about time our central and local government politicians started to do a bit of their own research for all our long-term sakes.

Dr David Hill

Prospective Independent candidate, Golcar

Careless country

I READ about the poor old pensioner in Fartown (Examiner, January 12) and can’t believe he was left without any heating for so long!

Go back five, 10 or 15 years and somebody would have had the gumption or decency to arrange some other form of heating for this poor chap!

Not nowadays because no-one cares any more, except about themselves.

It all goes to show why the country is in such a state!

Gary Kendall

Golcar

Swine flu reality

LAST year it apparently proved very difficult to penetrate NHS silenceŠwhen asking questions about actual swine flu patients in hospitals, as opposed to those who had symptoms on admission which suggested swine flu.

Our university’s expert, ProfŠPeter Bradshaw, might advise how the total of 50 actual tragic cases (Examiner, January 7) compares against a similar period in 2009-2010.

Another relevant contrast is the number of admissions and deaths in recent years caused by long-standing types of flu.

One set of figures in rarely sufficient in the complex world of biology.

Garfi

Huddersfield

Solar bollards

I NOTE that the Highways Department is proposing to get round the problems of maintaining the island bollards by replacing them with solar-powered units.

I hope they have done their research. I find that my little solar devices are useless on these dark days of midwinter and need real sunlight to be effective.

I also think these solar units will still get just as filthy from the spray and as damaged by the impact of passing vehicles as the present bollards and so, all in all, they may be a waste of public money.

There will be no escaping the need for proper maintenance.

Arthur Quarmby

Holme

Trust the readers

I WOULD like to sincerely thank all those Examiner readers who supported the Meningitis Trust during 2010.

It’s only with the help of local communities that we are able to continue our vital work helping to rebuild lives shattered by meningitis.

The Meningitis Trust relies entirely on voluntary donations which means support from individuals, families, schools, nurseries and businesses is fundamental to our survival.

This year we celebrate our 25th anniversary – a quarter of a century of supporting people as they face life after meningitis.

Meningitis can strike anyone, of any age, at any time. Those who survive can be left with devastating after-effects including loss of hearing, sight, brain damage and, where septicaemia (blood poisoning) has occurred, loss of limbs.

These after-effects last a lifetime and impact on all aspects of day-to-day life for the individual as well as their family, friends and colleagues.

The Meningitis Trust is dedicated to helping people who have experienced meningitis rebuild their lives though its range of specialist support services.

This time of the year is particularly relevant for talking about meningitis as cases of the disease rise in the winter.

The Meningitis Trust urges people to be vigilant of the signs and symptoms and to trust their instincts.

Symptoms can include, fever, headache, stiff neck, dislike of bright lights, drowsiness, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases but not all, a rash that doesn’t fade under pressure.

For more information, readers can call the Trust’s freephone 24-hour helpline staffed by nurses on 0800 028 18 28 or log on to its website www.meningitis-trust.org

Anne Currie

Meningitis Trust

Against violence

I’M just writing to clarify a few things that were attributed to me in an Examiner piece last week.

In response to the journalist’s questions about the Coronation Street storyline in which I’m currently involved, I did say that Tracy Barlow is a bit of a monkey and that there may be a queue of people ready to put her into line.

All in the context of the drama, of course.

I would never support violence against anyone in the real world.

I made a few flippant remarks about people’s reaction to the character of Tracy Barlow but I don’t agree that anyone is ever asking for a beating.

Some people thought it may have given the impression that I enjoyed the way in which Tracy Barlow was dealt with.

I didn’t and those who know me would vouch for my views on this.

Paul Warriner

Huddersfield