April 8: Loss of Ilkley museum is major blow to tourism

IT was a great guide to the top 150 attractions in Yorkshire (The Yorkshire Post, April 1).

It’s a pity that Bradford Council have decided to close one of those attractions, the Manor House Museum in Ilkley, permanently and within days of your publication coming out.

This closure is before any community takeover has had time to materialise and before even anyone has had time to consider a council study into its future, released only a few days ago.

This Grade I-listed structure was given to the people of Ilkley by a benefactor and should remain accessible by residents and visitors to see its fine interior and exhibition about the history of Ilkley.

This is also particularly hurtful to the people of Ilkley as it comes at a time when Bradford has just received £0.5m grant from the Arts Council to make its museums more accessible!

Why so many police forces?

From: Nigel Boddy, Darlington.

WHY do we continue to have 43 police constabularies in England and Wales when the Scots have managed to combine seven forces into just one? There are massive savings to be made.

There wouldn’t be so many police and crime commissioners, or chief constables and their deputies, to pay. A deputy chief constable receives over £100, 000 a year. Savings could fund much more front-line policing instead. Would we need so many other back office staff?

Our present system stays the same because of pressure from within forces keen to keep promotion opportunities. Do we need three or four forces just for Yorkshire alone? Of course not.

Let’s bank on fingerprints

From: Dave Croucher, Pinfold Gardens, Doncaster.

UK card fraud totalled £479m in 2014. There has to be a more secure way than chip and pin.

The police carry a fingerprint ID machine. When a thumb is pressed on the screen, it identifies whose thumb it is  from the fingerprint database.

Surely fitting one of these small devices to ATM machines along with the chip and pin would save millions?

It would also help if everyone entering the UK were fingerprinted on arrival, but I suppose there would still be some people out there that would be bleating “we don’t want the bank or the Home Office keeping our fingerprint” which raises the question “why?”

You must have some intention of committing a crime then?

Judges on the wrong planet

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

IT it any wonder that so many of us continue to despair at the criminal justice system when we read the comments, and see the sentences, of some of our judges?

A carer suffered life-changing injuries when her car was hit by a drink driver (The Yorkshire Post, April 1). The culprit was locked up for three years after admitting causing her serious injuries by dangerous driving.

Judge Jonathan Rose, at Bradford Crown Court, told him that he had “ruined a woman’s life – that’s why you are going to prison for a substantial period of time”.

Well, if the judge considers that three year sentence to be “substantial”, especially considering how long will actually be served, then I am afraid he is on a different planet to the rest of us.

BBC’s cloudy judgement

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

EACH morning I go to my local library to take advantage of its internet facility. I always put the words “BBC Weather Grimsby” into a search engine, to get a detailed forecast for the day ahead. Trouble is, this seems to be less accurate than what is in your pages.

I think this is because the hourly forecast has the weathermen having to make a decision one way or the other  as to whether it will be fine or not.

By contrast a more generalised prediction can sit on the fence by saying there is a possibility of rain – which, as we know, can often turn into a probability!