YEP Letters: January 18

How many quarters in a whole?

Philip Sykes, Leeds 8

Regarding your article about the proposed Temple Quarter (YEP, January 14) I have questions that I wonder if anyone can answer for me?

Firstly, how many quarters does Leeds have? Quite a lot I think.

Secondly, when I studied maths up to A-Level in the 1960s there were only four quarters in a whole. Has this changed? How many quarters now make a whole? Is this an EU directive? I am confused!

Finally, if we have enough quarters does that mean that there will be two Leeds’?

City’s market is shadow of its former self

Jean Crossan, Filey

I was brought up in Leeds, but left 30 years ago. Recently I was visiting and cut through the once bustling market.

What on earth has happened to it? It was a Friday and was nothing like I remember.

No butcher’s row, hardly any fish row. The bottom half of the indoor market - not a stall in sight. Just a handful of food outlets, doing nothing that I could see. The outside market, a shadow of its former self.

What are Leeds City Council thinking, they have killed it. It was a market to beat markets, now there is no atmosphere whatsoever!

I spoke to several of what we called “barrow boys” at the bottom of the outside market who said they struggle and yet the council seem to think they’ve done a good job.

Take it from me, you so have not!

Such happy memories of 1950s and early 1960s shopping with my mum, 1970s doing my own family shopping.

If the council think this is good they obviously have no conception of what a thriving market is like. Such a shame.

Just state facts about market

Mrs M Partridge, Kendal

In reply to Councillor Richard Lewis’s reply (YEP Letters January 10) to Joe Cooney’s letter (January 6) regarding Kirkgate market.

Joe Cooney asked where had £13.5 million been spent on the market? One of the comments Coun Lewis said in response to Joe was that part of that money was spent on clearing 2,600 tonnes of rubble from the 1975 fire - what? Are the council telling me it has taken 42 years to clear some rubble?

I lived in Leeds for the first 30 years of my life and left there in the 90s and I can safely say I don’t ever remember having to clamber over a load of rubble when I was shopping in the once excellent market - what utter rubbish the councillor is talking!

Of course we all know things are expensive when it comes to building, repairs to listed building etc, but why doesn’t Coun Lewis just state the facts and not come up with some crazy comment about where some of the money was spent on clearing rubble up from 1975!

Roundhay Park part of heritage

B Smith, Leeds 7

I share the anxiety of A Wilson (YEP Letters January 12) over the proposals by Go Ape for a tree-top activity in Roundhay Park.

Their consultation flyer states: ‘that this is an activity that whole families can enjoy together’ – at £130+ for a family of four! What they do not state is what will be provided for this princely sum, other than the wires.

Will there be adequate (and free) on-site vehicle parking and rapid access to the site for ambulances and paramedics, considering the dangers? The company give no assurances – it is one thing to be ‘first-aid trained’. What about facilities for changing, showers and toilets? Can we assume that all this will be in place or will users be expected, as one council officer suggested, when challenged with the dearth of such facilities, that The Roundhay Fox was not far away. They make no promises in what is a submission that lacks clear detail.

The project is exclusive, on their own admission. The poorer sections of our city’s population will be priced out – as they are in the city centre. ‘We are working with Leeds City Council to establish a social inclusion policy,’ say Go Ape. It needs to be stated that John Barran purchased Roundhay Park for ALL citizens of this Borough, not just those who can afford the thick end of £150 for an afternoon of playing Tarzan. Indeed the booklet that accompanied the opening of the park, in 1872, says: ‘.....this splendid domain was secured for the borough.....the estate will not be disfigured by mean erections which would give to the park inappropriate surroundings.’ Let Roundhay Park continue as a part our heritage – not a theme park for the profit of a few.

Environmental vandalism?

David Speight, Tingley

I am very concerned at the over development in the Morley area and the country on the whole.

If this continues all our farm land will be developed and we will have no land to grow our own food. We will then be held to ransom by other countries who value farming and producing food. The problem we have here in Britain is we have a greed culture and profit is all that matters the long term future of this country means nothing to them.

We need to change before it is too late, the so called affordable homes are anything but affordable. The developers are as much to blame for flooding as global warming if at all global warming exists, they fill in the drainage ditches farmers used to maintain and rip out hedgerows all damaging our environment and wildlife.

They rip out trees a large oak tree can draw up to 50 or more gallons of water per day. Broad leaf trees use more water than such as coniferous trees.

Developers should be made to replace hedgerow instead of walls and plant broad leaf trees or build and avoid mature trees where possible. Are developers out of control environmental vandals?

Time for serious thinking on NHS

Ernest Lundy, by email

So once again we are told the NHS is in crisis.

What do people expect after uncontrolled immigration for years, millions of pounds being spent in overseas aid before first looking after our own; allowing health visitors from overseas to have free treatment; allowing drunks and others with self inflicted injuries to clog A&Es at weekends and holiday times; underpaying nurses and doctors at the sharp end, while paying agency staff almost double rates.

The NHS of its own volition is top heavy with managers and other hangers-on who drain the funds with ridiculous salaries. Paying off others with large redundancy amounts who are then allowed the same jobs in other districts of the NHS at the same rates. As for the A&E regulars, there as a result of their own excesses (nothing has changed since my own days as an ambulance driver) making them pay for their stupidity would perhaps see the wait for genuine accident victims reduce. Similarly those who make GP appointments and fail to keep them should also be charged; they do little to help a situation which is also becoming a laughing stock, with patients being asked to book appointments days and weeks in advance. Time for some serious thinking all round, otherwise one of the best services ever invented to benefit people of the UK, could go to the wall. This must not be allowed to happen.

Support Talking Books service

Lord Julian Fellowes, RNIB Vice President

Reading is such an important part of my life that I can’t imagine not being able to pick up a new book or read an old favourite. Thanks to RNIB’s (Royal National Institute of Blind People) Talking Books service, sight loss doesn’t have to mean losing access to the world of books.

The Talking Books service has revolutionised reading for people with sight loss since it launched in 1935 to help soldiers who had been blinded in the First World War, and it continues to provide more than one million audio books free every year.

I’m supporting RNIB’s ‘Sponsor a Talking Book’ fundraising drive which aims to raise £1m to produce hundreds of new accessible books. It’s really easy to make a difference. Simply create a JustGiving page, select your fundraising total - £2,500 for an adult book and £1,500 for a children’s book - and as you carry out activities, watch your total rise! For more information or to sponsor a Talking Book, simply visit www.rnib.org.uk/sponsortalkingbooks.