YP Letters: Leeds Bradford Airport link plans ignore public opinion

LEEDS City Council doesn’t seem to be aware of what the local constituents and the wider population of Leeds want when it comes to a link to the airport. Leeds City Council planners still lack vision when it comes to decisions regarding future infrastructure in Leeds.

I have spoken to many people about this proposed link road and, apart from one councillor, I have yet to hear anyone in favour of it. It would not be a solution as the traffic problem is not in Rawdon at all but in Horsforth and Pool, even after the thousands spent on the half-hearted attempt at a solution.

The only environmentally- friendly and sensible solution wanted by the vast majority is a proper rail link, which is not even being considered; not this proposed half-hearted station shuttle service.

We all know that the politician’s term ‘examining a rail link in the long term’ means never and is not an option and only added afterwards, as it may appease the objectors.

Coun Graham Latty has in the past stated that he would prefer not to have the loss of green belt and then states ‘but it is not an option’.

Sounds like he knows more than he is letting on and that the consultation is yet another box ticking exercise. He goes on to say a new road would improve the congestion on the A65 and A658. It would also create access to possible housing schemes once the green belt has gone.

It is not the airport traffic which causes congestion, less than 10 per cent on both these roads is airport traffic. There are only two congestion spots, the previously mentioned Horsforth roundabout and the poorly synchronised traffic lights at Murgatroyds.

Like Coun Latty, I, too, live next to the A658 but, unlike Coun Latty, I would love to see an improvement to our existing road system and protect our endangered green belt land.

More than that, however, I would prefer to see Leeds City Council for once take notice of its residents and create a proper long-term and environmentally-friendly solution, a proper rail link as any progressive airport would expect. And not spending taxpayers’ money on yet another transport white elephant.

French lead way over food

From: Paul Brown, Bents Green Road, Sheffield.

OUR friends in France have introduced a new law designed to protect the quality of food and to prevent damage to the agricultural sector by price wars between retailers. A number of initial measures were brought into force from February 1 in connection with the developing Loi Alimentation. It is also intended to be a means of improving animal welfare.

Some British politicians appear to think that we should follow the American model where the countryside becomes a vast open space with the maximum mechanisation of all agricultural processes, and the unlimited use of chemicals and antibiotics to control the problems which result from 
high density factory farming.

As is usual with our politicians, there is no intention to submit developments in food technology to the democratic process so that we can all express an opinion.

English please – not American

From: Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

I HEARTILY agree with Brian Sheridan’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, February 22) about the Americanisms creeping into the English language. How a four-year-old in an infants’ class can be described as a student and 
not a pupil baffles me.

Amongst my current pet hates is the use of the expression “between... to...” instead of “between... and...”

It is utterly illogical. Can you imagine “between the devil to the deep blue sea”? No, I thought not. And since when has a pavement or a lawn been a “floor”? If someone falls to the floor, one immediately assumes that s/he fell indoors.

I could quote so very many of these infelicities, but to do so in one letter would send my blood pressure shooting up.

From: Margaret Webster, Scholes, Cleckheaton.

I AGREE with Brian H Sheridan about the speech developments that have crept into our English language. I, too, am irritated when I hear BBC reporters and others say “drawring” and “withdrawral”. Please can we be correct and say “drawing” and “withdrawal”.

Leave the phones alone

From: Stephanie Shield, Sinnington, York.

THE PICTURE (The Yorkshire Post, February 22) of the new Independent Group shows several of these MPs looking at their smartphones, obviously not concentrating on what is being discussed in Parliament.

Perhaps it is time that MPs, like children in class, leave their phones in the cloakroom and concentrate on “the lesson”. Perhaps then these MPs will think about the people who they were elected to represent.

The people who voted for them and enabled them to receive their large salaries and perks. Certainly the current chaos in Parliament is not democratic. The “people” voted leave. Our decision is being ignored.

Not the first

From: Eric Houlder, Carleton, Pontefract.

I WAS thrilled to learn that a short film has been released of Shakespeare’s version of Richard II’s Prison Speech, commemorating his death 
on or about February 14, 1400, 
in our castle.

However, the feature (The Yorkshire Post, February 14) also states that Richard II has only been performed once in Pontefract Castle, in 2015.

In fact many Pontefract people recall with pleasure the play’s performance in 1951 for the Festival of Britain.