Tears for city
reduced to
dereliction

ALTHOUGH I have lived in York for 27 of my 57 years, I have a deep and abiding love for Leeds.

I am a loiner by birth and went to school in the city, lived in the Leeds area until my move to our great county’s capital, am a lifelong White and Rhino, and worked close to your old Wellington Street offices until a relocation to Harrogate seven years ago.

I visited the city centre last 
week for the first time since 
that business move and was moved to tears, literally, by 
the degeneration which has 
taken place in the intervening period.

The sheer quantity of unlet office space was staggering,the garishness of the “To Let” boards (with their message of cut-throat competitiveness) unsettling and the dereliction of certain commercial premises nothing short of a civic disgrace.

There was a prevailing atmosphere of decay in a city which still,perversely, claims financial and legal sectors second only to those in London.

I am not a politician and have no glib proposed solutions but something must be done! Leeds City Council should be in the vanguard of negotiation with commercial landlords and central Government at least to explore potential regenerative measures.

Surely this decay isn’t only visible and obvious to ex-pats like me, so why no outcry? It is a scandal!

As part of the day in question, by the way, I had to drive to Wetherby when I had finished in Leeds. This took me through Harehills. Imagine how that cheered me up.

Clegg failing to heed Party

From: Coun James Baker (Lib Dem), Warley Ward, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.

AS leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg needs to start listening to the concerns of party members, and stop making decisions that attack the principles upon which the party is founded.

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

It is these values that inspired us to join a party that was prepared to stand up and fight for them.

Yet over key issues such as proposals to introduce secret courts, the snoopers charter, and welfare reform Nick Clegg is letting down members who hold these values dear. The party conference voted overwhelmingly against secret court proposals, yet Nick has not shown any intention to consider this vote.

Worse still, he is showing his lack of leadership acumen by refusing to even meet with representatives of the party to discuss their concerns over this bill.

When a leader is willing to ignore their party and unwilling to engage with their concerns the day when their party regards their leadership as no longer fit for purpose is not far off.

Cheap money
costs savers

From: Brian Waddington, Dukes Wharf, Terry Avenue, York.

YOUR business section (Yorkshire Post, January 24) indicated that the Bank of England is now favouring its credit-boosting Funding for Lending Scheme. This was launched in August 2012 to provide banks and building societies with cheaper funds to boost lending.

Who is paying for this? The poor old saver as usual. Anyone who studies the interest rate tables published in each Saturday’s Yorkshire Post will have noted that rates on offer for instant access have fallen on average by 1 per cent to a lowly 2 per cent or thereabouts.

Even five year bonds have dropped from five per cent per annum to three per cent or even lower, a sure sign that the markets do not expect any improvement in the next few years. After all, why should institutions offer more to retail customers when they can get cheap money from the government?

Ever since the financial crisis began and base rates were lowered to the current 0.5 per cent saving has been actively discouraged.

It is too much to hope that the present regime will institute any change. One can only hope that when a new Governor of the Bank of England starts work he has sufficient sense to realise that a healthy savings rate will benefit the country as a whole as funds become available once again for consumer spending.