YP Letters: No tears for Leeds bendy bus on wires

I RUN a business in Leeds and I network widely in the business community. During the past three years, I’ve never met a single business supporter of the trolleybus (Tom Richmond, The Yorkshire Post, May 17).

When businesspeople I spoke to heard about the plan, their reactions have been incredulity at the very idea that Leeds should have a trolleybus, to astonishment that the city might spend £250m on a single route, to hollow laughs at the idea that it would result in 4,000 new jobs.

However it was dressed up as NGT, it didn’t disguise that it was a bendy bus on wires. It was not defeated by Headingley nimbyism (though shame on Leeds Civic Trust for not sticking up for Leeds’s treelined garden suburb).

It was defeated because it was a dumb idea from the off. It doesn’t not bode well for devolved government if those behind the scheme are representative of those who will lead us.

Before the same set of people blow the £173m Government windfall on anything else with the prefix ‘Super’, let’s do as Leeds MP Greg Mulholland suggests and have a proper transport summit.

From: Lionel Pyrah, Cambridge Street, Normanton, West Yorkshire.

HAVING regard to the ongoing devolution for Yorkshire saga, David Fletcher is absolutely correct in his call for ‘fewer prima donnas and more progress’ (The Yorkshire Post, May 12).

Constant political bickering in this vitally important matter is both counter-productive and naive – and could arguably lead to considerable economic harm being inflicted on both the county and the North of England as a consequence.

On the population issue, David Fletcher is right to point out that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is too small but, as I understand the situation, the Leeds City Region certainly is not.

Indeed, the LCR, which includes the WYCA, is richly enhanced by the adjacent district council areas of Harrogate, Craven and Selby, providing, as it would, a population in excess of 2.5 million people.

In addition, I believe the LCR currently possesses all the requirements to prosper economically, culturally and socially in the proposed Northern Powerhouse environment, sufficient to match any equivalent activity being undertaken west of the Pennines.

So, let the bickering cease in order to allow the Northern city regions to grow and prosper unhindered for the benefit of all in God’s Own County.

Don’t help the terrorists

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor.

THE Police Federation’s disclosure that they feel that they would not be able to react to terrorist acts in certain areas is mildly disturbing (The Yorkshire Post, May 18).

They suggest that should terrorists decide to attack rural areas where nuclear power stations or National Grid power points or gas storage facilities are located, then it would take time to get armed response teams to tackle the issue.

Second World War disclosures of this kind would have been classed as aiding and abetting the enemy and prison terms would have resulted.

Surely certain weaknesses in our system should be on a ‘need to know’ basis?

From: Bob Simons, Rowborn Drive, Oughtibridge, Sheffield.

SO, the next Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police will need to demonstrate a record of “ethically-based decision-making” and “substantial evidence of leading with integrity”. I don’t suppose that even for one moment did they consider advertising for someone with a proven track record in real police work.

The answer for texters?

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

PERHAPS Jayne Dowle’s message to “think before we click” should be translated into German (The Yorkshire Post, May 16). I heard recently that Augsburg council is putting traffic lights in the road surface to stop texters wandering onto the tram tracks.

I can’t help suggesting that a more cost-effective, long-term solution might be to tell the tram drivers to speed up.

Costly party at Windsor

From: R Kimble, Hawksworth.

IN a supposed age of austerity, am I the only one who finds the Queen’s 90th birthday shenanigans quite offensive? These people live off us and do not pay their full share of taxes.

Just how much did that concert at Windsor cost us, I wonder?

What has Web done for us?

From: JC Penn, Holcroft Garth, Hedon, Hull.

THE last 50 years or so has given us Big Brother’s world wide web. Has this made the Earth a better place to live? It seems to me we are on the way to a third world war and total destruction.