FULL marks to Andrew Jackson (August 16) writing against the inordinate demands of some folk getting married.
But surely the time has come for a return to single weddings.
Rather than breaking the bank with a performance that would make the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge envious, why not cut things down to size? After all, its a bit rich when a couple live together for several years while they save up for the wedding.
All you need for a wedding is the right documentation, a registered building with registrar or appointed person to officiate, and two credible witnesses. Anything else is strictly additional and optional.
Any time between 8am and 6pm is legal, and a simple religious ceremony for a few close family and friends can be arranged fairly cheaply even a professional buffet need not cost the earth. And the happy couple may well have enough money to put down a deposit on a first home.
Such is the terrible cost of some weddings, that I have heard of a prospective father-in-law offering his daughters prospective husband a lump sum to elope.
So can someone twist the arm of some celebrities, to set a fashion for minimalist weddings? It might even result in a drop in the divorce rate.
For beginning from a modest level might help young couples to accept reality in marriage, and not expect it to be roses all the way.
THE REV MIKE SMITH
Marsden
Persecuted peregrines
I AM a lover of all animal and birds and my sympathies go out to Harry Reid (Examiner, August 20, Prized racing birds preyed on by hawks) and his fellow pigeon fanciers for their losses; but he may have to consider other issues alongside the much persecuted peregrine falcons.
Currently the shooting of wood pigeon is controlled by general licences issued by Natural England for England, Welsh Assembly Government for Wales, Scottish Government for Scotland and in Northern Ireland by the NI Environment Agency (NIEA).
No individual application is required for any licence. You only need a gun licence.
The general licences authorise shooting for specific purposes such as: preventing serious damage to crops, vegetables, fruit and foodstuffs for livestock, and for the purpose of preserving public health or public safety.
It is important that any shooting complies fully with the terms and conditions of each general licence.
In Britain the shooting of collared dove and the feral pigeon is also permitted all year round.
The stock dove, rock dove and turtle dove are all protected species and may not be shot at any time.
The stock dove is often mistakenly called the blue rock and great care must be taken as these birds often fly with wood pigeons and feral pigeons and come readily to decoys.
And note, wild-living, former racing and homing pigeons often fly with feral pigeons but these birds are strictly protected as they are still regarded as the property of their original owner.
While they normally have leg rings to show their ownership, identification in the field can be difficult so, if in doubt, do not shoot. (All pigeons look very much alike when ready for cooking!)
Peregrines are protected under UK law but have a history of persecution from man.
Egg collecting, illegal hunting and the taking of the young for falconry have contributed to the peregrines vulnerability.
During the Second World War, peregrines were officially regarded as the enemy.
They were shot down in their hundreds by the army to protect homing pigeons carrying important messages back from the front line.
Out of a national population estimated at 700 pairs in the 1930s, about 600 peregrines, mostly in the south of the UK, were killed.
There are now estimated to be around 1,400 breeding pairs.
I for one welcome the return of these magnificent birds. They are a pleasure to watch in the sky above the Colne Valley.
David Townend
Linthwaite
Changing the landscape
A COUPLE of months ago I noticed a Save Butterly Spillway poster in Marsden stating once its gone, its gone forever.
Now Im quite keen on the spillway and was glad there were people out there contesting moves I knew nothing about, but as Im not a born campaigner, I left it at that.
Next morning I awoke to find my front stone wall had been stolen in the night. The police informed me it wasnt an uncommon problem. What annoyed me most (aside from the usual affront you feel at having something stolen) was the wider issue of posterity.
I know in the great scheme of things the theft of a bit of stone isnt the crime of the century but as Yorkshire stone is so expensive and with no guarantee it wont be taken again from our wall at least, its gone forever.
Its happened to friends too, who havent replaced for the same reasons. If were unable to preserve the unique original features that make up our landscape, making do instead with cheaper or concrete copies, eventually itll be irrevocably diminished.
Which brings me back to the Spillway and the campaign Ive now joined.
At a time when Yorkshire pride has rightly gone global with the help of our white rose Olympians, it seems more poignant than ever that Yorkshire Water is prepared to fritter away some of that pride by destroying the only listed spillway of its type in the country.
English Heritage states that listing helps us acknowledge and understand our shared history not if Yorkshire Water has its way.
M LARKIN
Marsden
Lost gems
IN 2005 Chris Marsden and Huddersfield Gem fought a highly effective campaign to save Queensgate Market.
Having gained listed status, its now protected from demolition and we should all be grateful.
Hmm, try as I might, I just dont see whats so magnificent about the mushroom-like hyperbolic paraboloid shells that offer only an ill lit, badly ventilated void of dirty concrete, hardly suitable to house an indoor market.
Huddersfield owes its reputation as a once handsome town to stone, locally quarried proper sandstone.
Utopian visions of 1960s urban concrete belong in Milton Keynes, or Bretton Sculpture Park.
Huddersfield lost so much of its finest architecture in a hasty rush to modernise, a disaster for our town, from which it can never recover.
Regretfully, Huddersfield Civic Society wasnt around in 1963 to save places like the old Market Hall, but there are more recent examples where iconic buildings have been carelessly lost.
The Castle Hill Hotel in 2004, Cambridge Road Baths in 2003, Somerset Crescent in 2009.
Huddersfield Civic Society, where were you?
Uncle Grumpy
Golcar
Spanish lesson?
I GET most annoyed when road works are to commence in Huddersfield.
For example the bridge works in Milnsbridge (14 weeks), Wakefield Road (10 plus weeks), Blacker Road (nine weeks).
Why cant we be like the Spanish? I was in Tenerife last year. A road which is approximately the same length as Blacker Road was closed early one morning.
I made the comment to my wife, Here we go.Ten weeks.
Yes it took 10. But sorry, it was 10 hours. The road was fully dug out etc.
As this was being done the contractor was laying the new road surface.
At 9 pm we decided to take a look at the road works.
The road was fully opened and re-marked.
Stuart Hunt
Sheepridge
Light switch off
LIGHT up St Georges Square, (Examiner, August 20) you must be joking.
If councillors need to spend money in these hard times come and look at our rural roads around Holmfirth.
I am sure the locals would welcome the same spending and save the suspension on our cars
Holly Townend
Wooldale
Financial fears
OLD age pensioners are living in fear of having their homes taken off them to pay for medical care if they have to go into nursing homes.
Most pensioners who are in their late 80s saved this country and they also paid into the NHS. So to have to pay £500 plus a week and have their homes taken is, in my view, nothing but robbery!
These homes should be run by the NHS not by patients who own their homes! And its time our government stepped in and did something about this robbery!
H BARROWCLOUGH
Waterloo
