I was interested to read Mr Justice Collins's comments on the "slightly limited" means to object to mobile phone masts (May 18).
May I warn readers that you have to know about a mast in order to object to it and here in Barnsley that's not easy.
I recently discovered, by accident, that T-Mobile had plans to install a 14.5m high telecommunications mast near my home in Tankersley.
Parliament has relaxed formal planning procedures for masts under 15m, and as a result, only the council ward members, the Highway Authority and Tankersley Parish Council were consulted.
By the time I found out about the plan, the mast was approved. Barnsley Council did not send out any neighbour notification letters because the site "was in a remote location".
The family who live in the cottage a few metres from the mast might disagree, as might the residents of 66 houses and a senior citizens' flats complex nearby.
However, they never had the chance to object because they knew nothing about it until it was too late. How can you object to something that you don't know about?
I wrote to my councillors and MP to ask for help in this matter. Mick Clapham replied by suggesting the "only way forward is to try and get a strong community voice opposed to the siting of the mast".
I received his letter the day the grey beast and its ancillary equipment (rarely mentioned) arrived. The visual impact, next to an ancient woodland and nature reserve within South Yorkshire Forest, is shameful.
There are plans for hundreds of masts in this country, many of them will be erected to the total surprise of local people. They are approved by a process that does not include the ability of those most affected to have their concerns, both the adverse effect on the amenity of the area and perceived health risks, taken into account.
Is it reasonable to have a planning system which requires me to inform my neighbours of my intention to extend my home, but allows mobile phone companies complete freedom to put up masts where they choose?
I call on the Government to revoke the amended planning regulations, before our landscape is completely spoiled.
Mother calls for rethink over boy's litter fine
From: Ursula Lumb, Heptonstall, Hebden Bridge.
MY son, aged 16, was also fined £50 recently by Calderdale's litter police. He was off school premises but it was during the lunch break and he was wearing his Calder High School uniform.
He and three friends were walking down to Mytholmroyd and they saw a can on the road (emphatically not my son's). Like all football-mad lads, they started kicking it down the road.
One boy then picked it up and asked the others how much money they would give him if he could throw it into a bin across the road. He missed and then my son picked it up and said how much would they give him if he could throw it into a skip. He threw it and it bounced off some bushes and disappeared.
A litter officer then appeared and gave him the fine notice. My son gave his name and address (he could easily have given false ones) but went back to put the can into the skip. I completely agree with Mrs Dianna Sanderson ("Fury over fine for boy who dropped litter in playground", Yorkshire Post, May 19) that school children are easy targets for the council.
I put it to Calderdale Council that they would not be so free to hand these fines out to drunken adults who come out of Halifax pubs and clubs on Friday and Saturday nights and leave the town centre strewn with cans, bottles and fast-food cartons.
Surely some discretion should be applied when dealing with youngsters. My son has just started working and earns less than £4 an hour. It would be ridiculously harsh to expect him to pay all of the fine and, as I pointed out to the council, there are many families which simply could not afford to pay it.
I have brought my children up not to throw litter and I am convinced that they don't. Both return home daily with pockets full of empty crisp packets and sweet wrappers which they have carried around rather than throwing them on the floor.
I really think this policy needs to be looked at again.
Election test
From: Maurice Patterson, Furniss Avenue, Sheffield.
THE majority of the people I meet are quite strongly opposed to the EU.
The coming EU elections should therefore prove whether or not the electorate thinks before casting a vote.
The Lib Dems are in a love affair with the EU, only matched by a majority within the Labour Party.
The Conservatives are most eager to "belong to the club" but to be made a special case – very unlikely…
Under these circumstances, in an election on purely EU matters, assuming my personal experiences are representative, the principal parties combined should attract a minority of the vote. It may well be that the larger-than usual turnout due to postal ballots will still show voters refusing to have anything to do with the EU.
That leaves the minor parties. I rather hope that the BNP fail to prosper even if they do share my views on the EU. The Greens have a kind of ambivalence towards the EU not dissimilar to the Conservatives.
The UK Independence Party is where the interest lies. Allowing for voters not being lured into voting for the same party they customarily vote for – even if that party fails to reflect their views about the EU – and allowing for the protest non-voters, common sense suggests the UK Independence Party should take at least two of the six local seats under proportional representation.
After all their recent publicity and high-profile incoming defectors, I predict that they will still only take the one seat and Tories, Lib Dems and Labour will mop up the other five.
If I am correct, it would bring into question the thought processes of any voter who actually endorses the main parties by voting for them even when that vote is in favour of something the voter does not actually want.
Maybe I am wrong and UKIP will gain more than one seat, but I doubt it. Isn't democracy a strange beast?
Democratic?
From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.
THEY are supposed to be called Liberal Democrats, but how democratic are they being in next month's local council elections in North East Lincolnshire?
After entering into a coalition with the Conservatives to take power last year (under a Tory leader), they've now decided there will be no wards where both a Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidate will stand against each other.
Personally, I thought these kind of pacts went out with Huddersfield and Bolton West in the 1950s.
Certainly, I can see turnouts dropping as a result of this arrangement, with voters wanting to protest about Tony Blair's involvement in the Iraq war, but drawing the line at supporting the equally militaristic Tory Party.
Charles will make an excellent monarch
From: Walter Metcalfe, Central Avenue, Shipley.
I HAVE noticed that republicans hardly ever are able to offer us a balanced argument supporting their views, but tend to resort to a vituperative approach – Aled Jones (May 14) is another of these.
He writes: "I sense… republican sentiments in this country." Where?
Perhaps in the republican club! How much of the country does that cover? He writes: "I think few people relish the prospect of Prince Charles" (as King). How extensive a poll has he conducted? So from these two subjective views he suggests a debate and a referendum.
He goes on to place the blame for all that is wrong with society today upon the Royals. He has erred in his geography: the ills of our country have actually been legislated in the House of Commons. Royalty has no power: the dictum is: "The Queen reigns but Parliament rules." The Queen herself is above the law so that she is able to sign, in approval, the Acts enacted by Parliament. This status was arranged more than 200 years ago, and it has worked admirably ever since. Apart from the Queen, all other Royals are subject to the law – remember the Princess Royal's dog? Others have been fined for speeding.
He advocates the ending of the divine right of kings – he surely knows that it ended on a block of wood in Whitehall on January 30, 1649! He seems to blame the Queen for signing the Treaty of Maastricht, but she is advised by her Ministers, especially the Prime Minister – those MPs who are unable to change it are the ones who approved it.
As regards the Civil List, he may be on firmer ground except that his desired President will not come cheap. Such a one will require a residence, administration, flunkeys, security, etc, transport by road, rail, air and sea (will there be a presidential yacht?) and all this to be paid for by the taxpayer. A president will not herald in the golden age. The rot will continue until moral standards are restored, and will the president dare to do that?
Mr Jones's letter contains out-of-date Leftish ideas on equality and privilege so I'll pass over them.
His statement that "the monarchy has become an anachronism" is a complete mis-statement for the fact is that it has been one since about the time the United States got its first president.
Think on the positive side: here in the UK we have a monarch who reigns over us but has no power over us except our regard and respect towards her; when we wave our flags and our hats and shout "God Save the Queen" it is not from compulsion but from affection.
As regards the Prince of Wales as the next king, let us ignore the media and take him as he is: he is no Nobel laureate, but most of us aren't, and he comes across as open, honest and sincere. I think that he will make an excellent monarch.
Music just isn't like it used to be – says this 23-year-old
From: Alison Dodgson, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield.
I agree with Jayne Dowle (May 17) and I am relieved to know that I'm not one of the few who thinks like this.
I often ask myself, "What has happened to music?" I'm getting on a bit I suppose – 23 next week – maybe I'm falling out of touch? Maybe all these girls with bleached blonde hair, effeminate, pre-pubescent looking boys and their dance routines are the modern thing, but, where's the music? Where are the lyrics? It's all synthesised loops and repetitive chants and predictable lyrics that rhyme nursery-rhyme style.
I wonder if the introduction of "brainwashing-kids" television, such as the Teletubbies, was the preparation for this, because that could be one explanation for the dumbing down, simplified, hypnotic trash that you are presented with if you watch Top of the Pops.
I admit Primal Scream and Radiohead are now using electronic sounds and devices to make music, but this is enhancement of a good thing.
They continue to rock while doing it, and they never needed good looks or boyish charm to make great music, sell albums, concert tickets or even merchandise.
The breakthrough of bands such as Franz Ferdinand, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Datsuns, The Cooper Temple Clause give me some hope, but it seems as though this is an underground thing now.
I live in Huddersfield and between 1998 and 2000 I saw many great bands in Leeds at The Town and Country Club and The Duchess. Sadly, these venues no longer exist and there is nowhere "big" or famous enough for bands to play in Leeds. I have to trek to Manchester to find a music scene, which is both expensive and inconvenient.
I am looking forward to the new Charlatans and PJ Harvey albums but great new music is becoming a rare thing and I miss it.
Points
Chance to quiz EU candidates
From: Mike Dods, secretary, Leeds/Bradford Branch of the European Movement, Wensley Grove, Leeds.
There is a golden opportunity for everyone who wonders just what the European Parliament does to question four of this region's candidates in the forthcoming election.
The European Movement has organised a "hustings" tomorrow, May 25, at Leeds Civic Hall from 7.30pm to 9pm. Participants will include Edward McMillan Scott MEP (Con), Mark Hill (Green Party), David Bowe MEP (Lab) and Stewart Arnold (Lib Dem). So, here is a chance to find out what each party stands for, and what the candidates can do for you.
Tree lovers
From: Derek Ashton, Cawcliffe Drive, Brighouse.
I am totally opposed to the destruction of the cherry trees which have provided an attractive feature in Halifax town centre for many years.
I cannot understand the attitude of councillors, especially John Hardy, describing the trees as grotty; many other features of Halifax fit this description better.
From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Shipley.
I AM not in favour of cutting down trees, and reading of residents' objections to the cutting down of the cherry trees in the centre of Halifax, I would side with them.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Norfolk Gardens, in the centre of Bradford, and the council obliterated it, with the many flowering cherry trees. When there were so many objections to this, the City Centre Park was created which, though pleasant, is inferior to what was there before, with its many mature trees.
I think councillors should leave well enough alone and spend money where it really needs to be spent.
Fox damage
From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield, Skipton.
When will people who know nothing about country matters, such as Jeanne Young (Letters, May 17), realise that foxhunting is the important control of vermin in the kindest and most natural way possible?
Every dictionary tells you that foxes are vermin and every true country person knows the damage they do.
Truly secret?
From: C Tutill, Wilson Street, Wombwell, near Barnsley.
How can it be called a secret ballot when I am required to put my declaration of identity in with my vote?
I am always a bit wary when the powers-that-be move the goal-posts. What assurance have I that my vote will not be recorded somewhere it should not be?
