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More balance called for in debate over eco-town
From: Jim Walker, Kent Road, Selby. IN all the furore about the proposed eco-town, residents of Kellington and Eggborough are obviously going to be concerned. I think, however, a bit more balance is needed in the debate.
Many ordinary Selby and Yorkshire families cannot afford to buy a first home to bring up their families in their own home areas.
Selby Council's own housing need survey found that there is a lack of affordable homes and a "large shortfall" of one- and two-bedroom affordable homes.
The price of an average property in Selby District is
now out of reach for many people who have lived here all their lives.
We urgently need to increase the supply of housing. As I understand it, an eco-town means that as well as being energy efficient, all the required public services, schools and public transport comes with the new housing.
Like most people living in Selby District, I was not born here. I do not want to pull up the drawbridge behind me. I would welcome a new eco-town which would provide more family housing for our children while also giving the district a prestige area of new employment and housing of which we could be proud.
From: Mrs C Johnson, Pick Haven Garth, Kellington.
AS a resident of Kellington for nearly 40 years, I have been following the recent debate around the Willow Green eco-town with much interest.
I find the whole idea of engulfing local villages within a new town of 15,000 homes; that's another 60,000 people; both ill-conceived and irrational, and it is my view that the only benefits to be
had will be financial ones for the developers and the landowner.
To many people outside the local area, this may just appear to be nimbyism, but the issues are very real.
Eco-towns are supposed to be environmentally friendly, but how can concreting over thousands of acres of green field, and in some cases green belt land, be good for the environment?
Will the carbon neutrality of the homes which are promised offset the amount of pollution an additional 15,000 cars will bring?
Would the town ever be anything more than a base for commuters to travel to places such as Leeds and York where the employment really is? And even if it would, who would choose to come and live in a house sited on, or around, high voltage power lines, and under constant threat of flooding and damage from mining subsidence?
From: Paul Rouse, Sutton on Derwent, York.
WE may have jumped a stage in the housing debate. Before discussing where new housing developments should or should not be built, we need to ask the Government to tell us the location, number and type of housing that they have decided, and the quality of the data on which those decisions were based.
It is worth remembering that pressure on housing stocks does not just stem from price inflation. Most of it comes from immigration, the growing number of single-parent families and an 800,000 increase in single person households in the past 10 years.
Much of the housing required for these groups is "affordable housing", defined as low cost social housing to rent – known to most people as council housing – or non-market housing, eg housing association properties.
The demand for council housing has been aggravated by the sell-off of council house stocks under the right-to-buy scheme, and the failure to reinvest the proceeds into new housing stock. This sell-off has also tended to reduce stocks of better quality council housing, leaving the less desirable properties standing empty.
The social changes mentioned above would seem to point to a requirement for more good quality social housing in areas where a high percentage of the population fall into the demographic groups most in need, and that indicates inner city and suburban conurbations. It does not seem to flag up a need for thousands of new houses in rural areas.
We all believe that we must build more houses, but it is important that we find out exactly how many we need, where they are needed and what mix of housing is required.
Before we even consider the infrastructure issues, like flooding risks, we should ensure that this has been done.
Time to investigate the quangos
From: Vernon Wood, Wharfedale Crescent, Garforth, Leeds.
THE news that the Competition Commission is proposing an Ombudsman to oversee the activities of the supermarkets is bad news for all concerned (Yorkshire Post, February 16).
The UK supermarket sector, probably one of the world's most cost-efficient, will be hamstrung by bungling bureaucrats who have zero comprehension of on-the-run decision-making, instant reaction to changing situations or even the very concept of cost-analysis.
The customer will be worst served by yet another nest of red tape buried in a dense fog of indecision, procrastination and
downright shilly-shally.
If an example (and there are thousands) of how a situation can be comprehensively quango-queered, one need only review the basic facts of a case very close to home at Garforth, Leeds.
Here, shortly after Morrisons' takeover of Safeway had been effected, the Monopolies Commission decreed that Morrisons should divest itself of the store (together with over 50 other Safeways) "for competition reasons".
At the time, Tesco had a Garforth Main Street branch, another one at the next rail stop (Crossgates) and the monolithic Seacroft-never-closes-branch – the nearest 300 yards away, the furthest three miles. Morrisons' nearest branches were Rothwell (seven miles) and Hunslet and Wetherby (10 miles).
Incredibly, the muddling, meddling bureaucrats in London booted out Morrisons and installed Tesco, plus a bonus petrol station and huge car park. Leave the Garforth store by rail and within four minutes you can walk into their Crossgates branch. By car, Seacroft is five minutes away – straight round the ring road. There was no direct public transport access to a Morrison store.
I have to say that Tesco have made a very good job of their very good fortune. It would be difficult not to, as both store and petrol station were gifted a monopoly site with no competition within miles. One speculates as to how and why such a bizarrre decision can be made. Are these officials incapable of reading a map? Do they feel southern companies need an unfair advantage over those northern yokels? Are they blind? Am I unreasonable?
How on earth can these inexperienced intellectuals justify "competition reasons" for such contradictory conclusions from the facts –
a decision which was only arrived at over 12 months after it was initiated?
Isn't it time the quango industry was itself investigated – by industry?
Protect the whales
From: Heather Causnett, Escrick Park Gardens, Escrick, York.
I COULD not agree more with the sentiments of David Quarrie (Yorkshire Post, February 13).
We have recently experienced a visit to Antarctica where the unique and breathtaking beauty of this amazing continent has to be seen to be believed.
Among the sights were the whales, and the lecturers who spoke to us during the voyage left us in no doubt that most of the civilised world deplored Japan's massacre of these beautiful and harmless creatures.
Why, then, can't an anti-whaling fleet of ships like those of Greenpeace be funded internationally to patrol the waters where
whales live to repel Japan's death-dealers?
For them to pretend that they kill whales for research purposes is sheer rubbish.
I am ashamed and disgusted that Japan is allowed to carry on with this vile practice and the slaughter will continue as long as materialistic and political considerations carry more weight with nations' leaders than decent and compassionate ones in this Godforsaken world of ours.
Need for more work on drains to cut floods
From: Arthur H Bellamy, Moss Green Lane, Brayton, Selby.
SOME years ago, I attended a village gala cum farm show cum vintage car rally in, I think, Keyingham, but certainly to the east of Hull.
One of the items that I took interest in was a machine for making and cleaning ditches. It consisted of an engine and cab mounted on a set of three wheels in line with a second set of three wheels mounted on a hydraulic arm, which could be extended by 10 or 12 feet sideways to straddle a ditch. Another hydraulic arm carried a bucket JCB fashion to clean the ditch or to make a new one. Surely this is an ideal machine to partially solve the flooding problem in rural areas allowing water to pass freely to the larger watercourses.
How is it that the large drainage tunnel dug by "Maureen" from close to Hessle to Saltend along the river frontage has not been able to cope with the recent flooding? (Maureen is the name of the tunnelling machine). Do we need a similar drainage tunnel around the north side of Hull?
Our law needs to be kept under constant review
From: David J Casson, Ridgeway, Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
WHETHER it be family or village, town or city and especially country, there can be only one set of rules or laws which all citizens must abide by.
The latter are enacted in parliament and then voted upon by the population.
The basis of British law was laid down, first by the Roman Catholic Church, and then later by the Churches of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Throughout the 20th century, the influence of the lay-person became more and more evident.
I do not know of one good reason as to why some elements of sharia law
cannot be incorporated into British law.
There is now an established Muslim section of this country's resident population and this should be reflected in the law
of the land, which all must abide by.
I think that it was something like this that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams was advocating. The law should be constantly reviewed and there are existing laws, which are based on tradition in all societies, that have passed their sell by date.
From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.
FUNNY how, following the Archbishop of Canterbury's controversial remarks on sharia law, so many of those who were in favour of capital and corporal punishment and opposed to equal civil rights for homosexuals are now springing to the defence of the law of the land.
From: R England, Clark Court, Pontefract.
THERE have been numerous examples over the years of
so-called academics with profound degrees of intelligence but little in the form of common sense.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is a classic example. He is, of course, so intellectual that he subsequently implies it is us "thick lot" who have misunderstood him.
He is cocooned in Lambeth Palace, surrounded by the bunch of sycophants attending the recent Synod meeting, and totally oblivious to what is happening in the real world.
Instead of taking a strong lead on major issues affecting the country, such as the breakdown of the family unit and its repercussions, he has managed to spend a great deal of effort on the subject of homosexuality, thus dividing the Church.
Is there any wonder congregations are declining in the Church of England or moving to Catholicism whereat least they know where they stand?
From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley,Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
A MEMO to the Archbishop of Canterbury over sharia law. A little wisdom is often of more value than an abundance of knowledge.
Doubts over
EU claim
From: Kay Ritchie, Lowther Grove, Leeds.
STEWART Hanson (Letters, Yorkshire Post, February 13) claims that the EU can adopt a proposal "even if all 27 national parliaments decide a proposed law is outside the EU's remit".
How? That would need the Ministers from EU countries – accountable to those very same national parliaments – to adopt such a law, obtain the approval of the European Parliament and survive the inevitable challenge in the courts. Hardly likely.
Another way
From: JC Penn, Birch Tree Drive, Hedon.
THERE is so much anxiety and negative thought in our political system these days, that surely it must be time for a change. We have suffered under Right-wing Thatcherite governments now for almost 29 years since that fateful day in 1979. There must be a new and more democratic way. Can anyone out there come up with a fresh and hopeful new way?
It's tolls for thee
From: Terry Morrell, Prunus Avenue, Willerby, Hull.
THE Government tells us that inflation remains at about two per cent. Bridge tolls in Scotland are to be abolished. In April, the Humber Bridge tolls are to rise five per cent to 5.80 for a double crossing. And the debt keeps rising. So much for Labour helping our local economy.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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