Potash find is opportunity for rail revival

GOOD news indeed for our friends in the North Riding – the discovery of further potash deposits in and around Hawsker and inland at Ugglebarnby (what a delightful name!). Of course there will be detractors, this is as beautiful an area as the Wolds, but I feel sure any infrastructure can be cleverly landscaped.

However, getting the material transported out would be a problem but this could be solved. The former railway line’s track-bed from Robin Hood’s Bay to Hawsker and on to Whitby is still extant, with the wonderful Larpool Viaduct still standing unloved but usable.

The line could easily be re-laid with a suitable diversion to the Ugglebarnby area, thus creating both some further employment in its re-building and a lessening of any road traffic around the country lanes thereabouts.

Potash could then continue on the railway to Middlesbrough or into the port of Whitby for trans-shipment by boat. More employment opportunities for Whitby too.

Not only that, a re-built railway would be a very nice tourist attraction at weekends when the mine traffic was not using it. Round trips from the North York Moors Railway at Pickering come to mind as it has a connection to Whitby through Grosmont these days.

Sterling effort to clear litter

From: John Richmond, Harrogate Road, Ripon.

GRAHAM Smith of Halifax (Yorkshire Post, March 14) should be praised for his efforts at picking litter on his daily constitutional!

Thank goodness there still are those who attempt the impossible, among them last week were a small group of individuals led by Ripon Rotary Club who in two mornings picked more than 50 bags of rubbish from the verges of Ripon bypass – this done in order to show thousands of daffodil blooms at their best in the next few weeks.

The Rotary Club organised the original planting of the daffodils in 1998, when more than 2,000 Ripon folk turned out to plant the bulbs in November of that year.

A plea to all motorists – please take your litter home and dispose of it in a bin.

Fortunes of war

From: Paul Morley, Ribblesdale Estate, Long Preston, Skipton.

FULL MARKS to Derek Curson on his excellent letter (Yorkshire Post, March 14). What a sensible idea, if politicians are so sure we are “at war” then the country should rightly be put on a war footing.

Conscription will clear the unemployment figures and the youth off the streets in one go. Anyone who is unfit for conscription will be put into war work – manufacturing equipment for the armed services, growing food etc. Conscientious objectors and aliens will be rounded up and closely guarded. Also, what a great test of allegiance to this country.

Let’s forget British African, British Asian and the like – you are either British or not. If not there is no place for you in a united British war effort.

Only one problem, there is not a politician in this country, of any party, who has the guts to make this happen. This country no longer has true statesmen, only self-serving placemen in politics for what good they can do themselves.

A red flag to officialdom

From: Mike Gillson, Quarry Lane, Birstall, Batley.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Lincolnshire council official responsible for the letter advising parents of a child to remove an unauthorised erection, the “Jolly Roger” flag, from the make-believe flag pole in their garden. It’s as if this coalition Government needed any pointers as to how to cut local government spending. Congratulations also to the neighbour who complained about the flag. Don’t we all wish we had someone like that living near to us? I bet that person is a right bundle of fun to have a night out with.

Just a little word of advice to the parents and the child. Rather than suspending it vertically on a fishing rod, suspend it horizontally on the washing line where it could be classified as household washing which is permitted. Simple.

Political threat to our NHS

From: George Appleby. Clifton, York.

I HAVE no loyalty to Tories or Labour and voted for both over the years. No choice! They both represent minority interests, nowhere near big enough to divide total power between them over the lives of the whole nation.

There is not enough strong opposition to David Cameron and George Osborne on the NHS. They will not back down unless they are absolutely forced on their number one trophy for their backers, under the banners of competition and private funding.

There is no place for these in the NHS, except amongst its suppliers to give the best value for money.

The damage they are doing, and will do, will take a lot of putting right.