Arguments against council offices project

I REFER to articles in your newspaper recently relating to Harrogate (Yorkshire Post, May 4 and 29).

We are very heartened to see such support from so many former mayors of Harrogate for the retention of our handsome Council offices in Crescent Gardens.

We are also delighted that the new Council Cabinet is willing to look again at the proposed scheme to sell Crescent Gardens and relocate to the former Police Station site.

This proposal is not attracting support, but perhaps even more important than that, although surely local opinion on a local issue must be given much weight, the new Government National Planning Policy Framework has to be considered.

Three facets of sustainability are advocated. Development should contribute to building a strong, responsive and competitive economy.

They should support strong, vibrant and healthy communities and contribute to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment.

Surely, wasteful demolition of the old police station, probable destruction of valuable interior parts of the Crescent Gardens offices and spending over £12m on a new building cannot accord with these principles?

The scheme would attract financial risks and remove the offices from the obvious convenient and historic location.

Apart from that, we see the old police station site as ideal for housing by conversion, plus new-build, as do our council forward planners.

Any future reports on the subject to the council should be available to the public, apart, of course, for any sensitive financial information.

Burden on the workers

From: H Marjorie Gill, Clarence Drive, Menston.

BRIAN Sheridan (Yorkshire Post, June 6) doesn’t tell us how old he is, perhaps he is still working or perhaps retired, but what is difficult to understand is how he (and other correspondents) feel that the present retirement age can be sustained with an ageing population.

Take 100 people as a sample: the youngest 20 are still in education, the second 45 are in employment and the final 35 are retired.

As anyone can understand, the 45 people in employment would have to support in financial terms the 55 people not in employment.

How long are the 45 employed people going to be able to enjoy a reasonable living standard with this burden on their shoulders?

It doesn’t matter whether they are bus drivers or school teachers or financiers, the burden will be too heavy.

I don’t think that too much emphasis should be placed on the idea that older people are too tired to work longer.

As we get older, we just carry on doing the job we have trained for, housewives continue to bake and housekeep, bus drivers continue to drive their buses and financiers continue to regulate the financial services and if teachers love their job, they will continue to teach.

And if you want to know the reason I can assure you this is so is that I am 88 years old and still going strong, not perhaps as quickly as in years gone by, but I manage.

Failures in the home

From: Mrs Julie Smith, Old Hexthorpe, Doncaster.

I HAVE the greatest respect of the views expressed by Brian Hanwell (Yorkshire Post, May 30). He is so right in every aspect of his account but there is a major difference in the present circumstances of many of the young today. His parents had jobs. You all had jobs, regardless of any type of education.

His parents were law-abiding, good and caring parents who believed in training and rules and took their children to theatres etc. No smoking, alcohol or drugs, and law abiding and respected and respectful.

It is not a “narrow school curriculum” which is failing our young or their parents.

The failure starts and ends in the home. Does he realise just how many lead deprived and sordid lives where thieving is taught by parents – where money is spent mostly on junk food, alcohol, tobacco, drugs and electronic gadgets? The parents and young have no respect for law and order – they glory in ASBO’s!

The child enters nursery already programmed to this social deprivation – but what can we do!

A nation of blood-suckers

From: Robert Reynolds, Harrogate.

IN reply to Janet Berry (Yorkshire Post, May 31), there is a simple answer to the question: “Why would anyone want to go into business today?”

Mostly, they wouldn’t. The taxes are coming thick and fast as the coalition tries to balance the budget and end our borrowing. Sadly, it’s not working.

We have regressed from the sneering remark of Napoleon as being “a nation of shopkeepers” to what we have now “a nation of blood-sucking bureaucrats”.

The people of this country are amazing. Our history has proven it. Our innovation and skills base are world class. Yet our political leadership and bureaucracy can only be described as mediocre. Only when we stop electing the clueless to Parliament will we emerge from the trauma of debt and recession.

Until then, do as William Hague bids, stop whining and work harder.