Unfair criticism of subsidies for hobby farmers and great estates

I CANNOT agree with Sarah Todd in her column last week on the subject of the Single Farm Payment. Jim Paige is only one of many in the EU discussing SFP prices over the last 15 years for wheat, rape, barley etc and which have barely covered farmers’ expenses, except for 2008/2009 and now this year. Then again, 65-70 per cent pre-sold at £100-£120 and prices for oil, sprays, electricity and household goods and food are again out of proportion and are likely to continue to rise. We are fortunate to be well fed as yet, but with world weather totally out of kilter with droughts, tornadoes and floods, who know for how long? As Ronnie Reagan said “We ain’t seen nothing yet.” Sarah says so many do not need subsidy, especially big estates. How do you know they are doing “very well thank you?” They will contribute more by employing more staff for farm and conservation work. They have more land for birds and foxes, badgers and deer. We are blessed in our region with some fantastic estates whose sheep and cattle are a joy to behold. They pay taxes like the rest of us. We should praise these people along with all farmers and land workers, not condemn.

From: Louise Close, Kettwell with Starbotton.

I write in response to Sue Woodcock’s recent comments in her Dales Diary. She writes that she was invited to the Kettlewell Street Party.

As organiser of this party with a number of other ladies, we did not individually invite any person. I would not want residents of the village to feel that personal invitations were made. I am pleased Sue and her family enjoyed the event.

My second point is her reference to the group of young people that in her words were “kicked out” of the pub in the next village because they asked for a bowl of chips. A group of young people who were intoxicated, urinating over flower beds, vomiting in toilets and threatening and aggressive to innocent holiday makers were told to leave and quite rightly so. The pub in question is a small hostel with a friendly landlord and landlady who keep excellent ale, a clean pub and serve good food. A coach full of drunks did not fit well in there.

Maybe Sue needs to discuss two sides of every story before commenting on events that take place in our Dales village.

From: Roy Bardsley, secretary, Saddleworth White Rose Society, Uppermill, Saddleworth, Yorkshire.

The article in Country Week by Roger Ratcliffe on Standedge Tunnel (April 30) was very interesting and informative, except for one glaring error which was quite offensive to Yorkshire people of Saddleworth – particularly as each quarter of the year we send a copy of our current SWRS Newsletter to the Yorkshire Post.

Diggle is one of the Saddleworth villages and the whole of Saddleworth is in Yorkshire where it has been for the last 1,000 years. The tragedy of 1974 was when the “Mickey Mouse” administrative areas were created and thoughtlessly dubbed “counties”.

The West Riding was not abolished, nor were any parts of the Yorkshire county boundary moved or altered in any way.