Let the smokers pay the taxes

WITH reference to the plans for the cigarette package ban (Yorkshire Post, April 12), Imperial Tobacco spokesman Alex Parsons said to the effect that the colour of the package has no effect as to whether people continue or take up smoking and all other people who objected to cigarettes having to be put into plain packaging came up with similar reasons as to why not.

If plain packaging is not going to make any difference as to whether people start smoking or decide to give up, why are these people objecting so strongly to the proposal?

However, the Government would be panic stricken if everyone who smokes suddenly gave up. How would they rapidly replace the £11bn per annum that they currently collect in tobacco tax, plus VAT. A four and a half pence in the pound rise on income tax?

Smokers, please carry on.

Water firms must save too

From: Graham Wilkinson, Broadlands Close, Dunscroft, Doncaster.

FOLLOWING Mr Haskell’s letter (Yorkshire Post, April 12) I would like to add my own comments.

People wasting water in parts of the country can be fined. However, it seems to me that the water companies are the biggest wasters of water whilst at the same time making significant profit.

Surely they should be re-investing more of the profit into the infrastructure, thereby reducing wastage?

If Joe Public can be fined for wastage then why cannot our Government fine the water companies and fine them to such an extent that it is in their financial interest to re-invest to save water and maintain profits.

Getting the wind up

From: Phil Hanson, Beechmount Close, Baildon, Shipley.

WELL what a surprise! Bradford Council, the ones who could not organise a booze-up in a brewery, have made the city centre into a global laughing stock, have now decided to go with a wind farm in Brontë country (Yorkshire Post, April 12).

Instead, why did they not suggest that the turbines be placed firmly in Forster Square, there the wind up the Aire Valley, coupled with all the hot air and bluster from the Labour council and MPs, including George Galloway, could have powered all the pound shops in the city for free.

It is high time the rest of the city centre was demolished, the council dissolved and what is left given to Leeds to be run at lower costs – at least they have a football team that prefers soccer to fighting. Bradford Bouncing Back and all that, stroll on!

From: Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire, Main Street, Wressle, Selby.

I AM horrified at the further desecration of the beautiful landscape and heritage of Yorkshire with ugly wind farms. There will soon be no Brontë country and no Hockney country which has attracted tourists for decades. When will this Government concede these beastly, useless monsters must go?

Don’t upset the traders

From: Coun John Procter, Conservative group office, Leeds City Council.

I WRITE in response to your recent article regarding the fears traders at Kirkgate Market in Leeds have over the council’s proposals for the future of the market (Yorkshire Post, April 6).

In my capacity as chair of the scrutiny board (regeneration), I have become well acquainted with the concerns raised by traders at the market, and the way their concerns about ever rising rent and the worryingly large number of vacant stalls have been brushed aside by market management – concerns I share.

The market’s management, and their bosses Councillors Keith Wakefield and Richard Lewis, seem determined to bulldoze their way through the well-founded concerns of traders, whose very livelihood depends on the health of Kirkgate Market. I’m constantly amazed as to why the people who know the workings of the market better than anyone, who have a vested interest in ensuring its future, have their views repeatedly brushed aside.

Kirkgate Market is a key part of Leeds’ vibrant city centre. While we undoubtedly need to consider options on how we can safeguard the market’s future. These efforts will not be successful if the council continually alienates the very people who make the market what it is: the traders.