YP Letters: Market town planners must wake up and smell coffee

I QUESTION why the local authority has given Costa Coffee the go-ahead to open in Pickering town centre.

Pickering, a lovely market town attracting tourists by the multitude, offers everything that is truly Yorkshire.

Pickering has a profusion of independent coffee shops and tea rooms, giving employment to local citizens and bringing in money from tourism and locals alike.

Costa Coffee is a multi-national coffee house company, the second largest in the UK. Why are we allowing the conglomerates to infiltrate our rural towns, taking business away from independent businesses?

Coffee chains such as Costa Coffee merely encourage people to purchase coffee in throwaway cups, which incidentally have been proven to be non-recyclable, contrary to Costa’s advertising, and continue to litter our countryside and end up in landfills.

We should be striving to maintain the beauty of our rural towns and villages, supporting small independent businesses and not encouraging the big guys to move in and spoil it.

From: June Smith, Helmsley.

WHAT a fantastic turn out for the Don’t Frack Yorkshire Day. People are now realising that the whole of Yorkshire is covered in fracking licences.

As Sir Gary Verity states in his Welcome to Yorkshire tourist guide: “Yorkshire has an abundance of beautiful market towns scattered throughout the county, including the very best in Britain.”

He makes a special mention about Helmsley (where I live) which was named market town of the year in last year’s Great British High Street Awards.

We love this county for its diversity – we have the moors, seaside and farmland, which produces high quality and unique products which Sir Gary refers to in his guide and giving employment to almost a quarter of a million people and which he states is worth £7bn annually.

The oil and gas companies have already carved up Yorkshire ready to drill should future planning be passed. If gas is found, this could be the beginning of the industrialisation of our beloved Yorkshire as we know it today.

Airport treats us like cattle

From: Jane Dally, Addingham.

I READ Thomas Black’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, July 30) with interest on the quality of service provided by Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA).

Since writing a letter of disbelief to you in 2013 on the subject of drop-off/pick-up fees at LBA, or the “kiss and fly tax” as complainants have coined it, I note that the protests have continued over but to no avail.

Travellers can still be spotted tugging their dead weight suitcases up uncovered walkways, often in gales and snowstorms. And the only response from the LBA board seems to have been to increase these unfounded charges even more, by a staggering amount well off the inflation scale. And why? Because they can and will suffer no loss of trade as a consequence.

“Like cattle” is a phrase that comes to mind when considering LBA’s behaviour towards their fellow men and customers. The increased charges cannot be explained by rising costs when only machines are running the show (ticketless ones too).

The unmanned police car on the roundabout to prevent “kiss and fly” fee dodgers will no doubt be financed by taxpayers. Would it not be more economical to replace it with a cardboard cutout?

Stressed out by strimmers

From: Chad Logan, Leeds.

YET another sunny afternoon in my garden ruined by the deafening “orchestra” of garden tools drowning out my radio and leaving my nerves on coils.

At times it seems hardly worth having a garden with all these strimmer obsessives causing such noise pollution.

It seems to me this problem is never addressed but I’d soon have the council on my back if I played loud music to match those decibels. Why should they therefore get away with such a row day by day?

This does not seem a fair ball game in my opinion. This intrusive problem needs dealing with. We deserve peace and quiet on our own property.

Walking can do wonders

From: Richard Muncaster, Director, Living Streets.

NEW figures show the NHS in England is spending nearly £1bn a year prescribing drugs for diabetes, almost double the level of a decade ago. Preventing diabetes is essential and one of the simplest ways is for people to walk more.

Walking helps maintain a healthy weight, increases fitness levels and uses large muscles which help control blood sugar, making developing Type 2 diabetes less likely.

We want to create a walking nation. Just a 20 minute walk every day can reduce the risk of diabetes and other chronic conditions, including heart disease, certain cancers, 
stroke and depression. What’s more, it’s easy to fit into our 
daily lives.

Hopping off the bus one stop earlier on the way to work, choosing to walk on the school run or walking to the local shops can have a very positive long-term impact on our health and can protect the future of our National Health Service.