Thursday's Letters: Environmental training will suffer if hall closes

LOSEHILL Hall in the Hope Valley has been the centre of environmental education in the Peak District National Park for nearly 40 years. It and the services it provides are about to be lost, and with that the opportunity to reach thousands of people (Yorkshire Post, September 28)

Losehill Hall has an international reputation for excellence in its learning opportunities, teaching and environmental training. Last year, 22,500 people, many of them young people, benefited from its services. Now, faced with severe financial cuts, the authority has put Losehill Hall up for lease or sale, thereby saving some 300,000 a year – or a fifth of the savings it predicts it will need to make. If an attractive offer is not made, the property will be sold on the open market.

This is deplorable. With the loss of Losehill Hall the authority is slashing the number of people it would educate and train by nearly a third to as low as 7,000 a year. How then is the authority to meet its statutory purpose to promote increased understanding and enjoyment of the park?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I entirely understand the need to make cuts, but environmental education services are key to the future and must, at the very least,

be sustained at their present level.

Time is needed to think through a strategy with the hall providing a complementary service to the one the authority now proposes to pursue but in the care of a trust or charity.

Many of your readers may have benefited from time spent at Losehill Hall

learning about the National Park or enjoying courses or training.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I urge everyone who cares about those services to fill in the

questionnaire at www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/losehillconsultation by November 8 or email the National Park Authority at [email protected] by December 1, asking it to ensure that the hall continues its educational role under new management.

From: Anne Robinson, Bamford, Hope Valley, Derbyshire.

There is an alternative to these cuts

From: Dawn Richards, Bridle Stile Gardens, Mosborough, Sheffield.

AS a parent and a taxpayer in South Yorkshire, I am worried about the level of cuts in the comprehensive spending review.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There must be an alternative. I am sure we could save money in other ways so there would not need to be a single penny taken away from any public service, or a single job lost. From my point of view there is not a debt crisis: UK debt is lower, as a percentage of GDP than the US, Japan, Germany and France. UK debt is just over 50 per cent of GDP today, but from 1918 to 1961 it was over 100 per cent – in that period we built the NHS, welfare state, millions of council homes and nationalised key industries.

The UK tax gap is 120bn, caused by tax avoidance, tax evasion and uncollected tax. HM Revenue & Customs continues to cut staff when each tax compliance officer brings in 658,000 of tax revenue. Renewing Trident would cost 100bn over 30 years when the Lib Dems pledged not to renew it. Surely we could save this money and invest it in public services?

We should not forget that it was the banking sector that caused this crisis and is responsible for the huge debts. Bankers are again awarding themselves huge bonuses. The Government's bailed the banks out to the tune of 1.3 trillion.

We need to create jobs, claim all the unpaid taxes, not renew Trident, and pull out of Afghanistan as well as use the nationalised bank assets for the public good. These are the proper and correct alternatives to the Government's present strategy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The cuts are already starting to bite with cuts in school buses, services to elderly and cuts in public services. The public need to ask themselves whether their elected MP is really representing their views by saying there is no alternative to the cuts. If they aren't then they need to tell them and make sure they start listening to the many other people who are saying there is an alternative to the cuts.

From: Peter R Hyde, Kendale View, Driffield.

I SEE that Labour wants to raise taxes to avoid cuts by Government (Yorkshire Post, October 19). The people who will suffer are the taxpayers. No surprise there then. The way to save money is to eliminate waste in all its forms. Stop using taxis where there is public transport available.

In this modern day of communications there is no need for many of the conventions so beloved of local authorities. Cut down on unnecessary paperwork and form filling. Use smaller, more efficient vehicles for transport.

Some years ago, as part of a polytechnic course, I did a survey on a quite large, company and discovered massive duplication of tasks. The managing director thanked me for my efforts and did nothing about the obvious waste. The company went bust. Intelligent examination of waste can be a big saver and, therefore, reduce some of the cuts. Oh, by the way, David, I am free just now.

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn, North Yorkshire.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

LET us who are old enough pass on to the up and coming generation what things were like between 1939 and 1943. Britain had its back to the

wall while fighting for its very existence against overwhelming odds and it was the stoicism and bravery of the British people which saw us overcome the life and death situation in which we found ourselves. Any lapse would have seen the end of Britain as we know it today.

So, what have we today? Once again we have our backs to the wall because of our huge financial deficit, but this is something that can be put right with a little sacrifice and without loss of life or property.

The two events don't bear comparison. When I read of grumbles and complaints coming in from all corners of the realm because some are going to have to take a little less in their paypackets, it makes me think that we have become a different breed to the one we had in wartime.

From: Tony Bradbury, Wheatfield Drive, Tickhill, Doncaster.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

THE coalition is expecting the private sector to revive the economy, yet it cancelled the 80m loan for Forgemasters, even though Vince Cable previously agreed it would be value for money (Yorkshire Post, October 16).

All involved agree it would create jobs, not only in our local area but in the engineering chain also, and now it's becoming apparent that the nuclear build programme over the next 20 years will be provided with casting made abroad, namely in Japan. So can someone take these Government officials to task and make them explain how this is good for the economy.

This is a valuable enterprise and needs support. George Osborne has said he wants to spend on things he thinks will create jobs and allow a private sector recovery. If that doesn't fit the bill at Forgemasters, I don't know what does. So please forget about saving face – there are jobs at stake here.

Bankers are not to blame – it was all Labour's fault

From: Gordon Lawrence, Stumperlowe View, Sheffield.

AS the smoke clears from the devastation left by Labour, Glyn Powell (Yorkshire Post, October 13) attacks the coalition alliance and Chancellor George Osborne and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith in particular; it can be likened to blaming the mourners of the Massacre of Glencoe for perpetrating the massacre.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

So, in his view, the IMF, the OECD, and the vitally important international credit agencies are all wrong in backing the Government's attempts to do something about our appalling budget shortfall: one in every four pounds we struggle to earn is employed in paying off just the interest on all that we owe. And that deficit, as Mr Powell would love us to believe, cannot be laid at the door of the bankers. It rests squarely on the incompetence of the last Labour government.

One of his solutions to the UK's problems is to invest in nationalised industries. Yet even the Russians, after 73 years of oppression and economic decline, finally came to the realisation that central direction of industry and the fetters of socialism fail lamentably to work.

And, of course Mrs Thatcher, as the hate icon of the Left, is subject to almost ritual anger by Mr Powell, failing to grasp that she was the only post-war leader to arrest our demoralising secular economic decline.

Labour, in spite of the fine efforts of Frank Field, shunned reconstruction of the welfare system, their cold feet turning into frozen posturing. And Mr Powell attacks Mr Osborne in his attempts at reform for allegedly punishing the disabled and sick. Is he claiming there is no widespread systemic welfare abuse? He must live in a Fabian wonderland.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I'll agree with his strictures on the EU but Mr Powell and his Left-wing sympathisers should allow economic reality and the context of recent history to moderate and enlighten their vision.

Cut the world's population

From: Ralph Hewitt, Leeds Road, Kippax.

MAY I suggest to Simon Bowens and his colleagues at Friends of the Earth that instead of tinkering with minuscule amounts of carbon budgets (Yorkshire Post, September 30), that they look at a broader picture and use their vast amounts of knowledge and enthusiasm to start reducing the world population over the next four decades by 50 per cent.

I don't know how this could be achieved, but this would reduce the carbon emission of the whole world, and not just the tiny amounts that Friends of the Earth seem to spend so much time and effort on.

Of course, they would be up against food producers, oil barons and even religions but this tired old world is groaning under the burden of too much population.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I can't see any other organisation capable of initiating such action.

Stop whingeing about EU vote

From: G Ellison, Hawthorn Avenue, Dronfield, Sheffield.

WHY do the anti-EU whingers still complain of not having a referendum on whether or not we should remain in the EU? Since Edward Heath took us in, this country has had more Conservative rule since 1971, so the people have voted for a pro-EU. Harold Wilson gave us a referendum and people voted to stay in.

I hope these whingers vote for alternative anti-EU parties at General Elections as there are several, instead of thinking about tax cuts.

I would think our interference in Northern Ireland cost billions more when it is an Irish problem, so there should be a referendum on whether we belong there or not.

University challenge

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

D BALDWIN (Yorkshire Post, October 18) writes of difficulty in understanding the question of cuts affecting students and universities.

Really the problem is quite straightforward. Either we can go back to the days when fewer people went on to take a degree, but all were funded and had adequate student grants, or we can continue sending the same numbers to university but accept that it will be a burden on the public purse.

Whatever, it is imperative that the brightest poorer children aren't deterred from continuing with their studies because of money issues.