YEP letters: December 8

The next station stop will be ... Elland Road!

Peter Ladle, by email

I THINK the proposal of three new stations in Leeds is fantastic news but what about a fourth at Elland Road?

It needn’t to be bigger than enough to carry football fans every two weeks but also park and riders who at the moment can only use the buses.

People from out of town without transport could alight here or The White Rose station or just stay on and head into the city centre.

It would also keep many football fans off the streets between Leeds city station and the short walk to Elland Road around Holbeck and keep the streets quieter for the West Yorkshire Police force.

There’s little new in train proposals

Angood, Brittania Close, Leeds

Reading your report on the proposals of new stations (Three stations for city, YEP, December 5) and the rhetoric of the council I find myself recalling similar reports from years ago. The only new idea is the station at Thorpe Park, itself a new development. The other two stations have been mooted over the years with nothing happening. There is nothing ambitious about these plans they are only plasters covering the ever widening cracks in the system.

What happened to the panel of “experts” that was appraising the contents of the consultation process? Have they been sent into hibernation? Were these proposals already in the pipeline and the consultation only a diversionary tactic so the council could put its original ideas forward without mass opposition? Will the public ever see the contents of the consultation and have chance to give an opinion on some of the proposals?

The council are our decision makers and we have to rely on them to decide what is best but sometimes we have to raise serious doubts about their ability to see further than the end of their noses. The council keep saying the area needs a viable transport system but have failed to deliver over the decades for differing reasons.

Everyone seems to agree on the need for a rail connection to the airport but to put a station a mile away and then have to provide an access road is a ludicrous decision. Ten or 20 years from now they will still be prevaricating about transport - except for the insistence on road humps, 20mph zones and cycle highways and anything to keep cars out of the city centre. I despair!

Airport plan pie in the sky?

The idea of a train station close to Leeds Bradford Airport continued to attract your comments on Facebook:

Will Gurrey

Apparently LBA is so high up a train would not be able to go into the airport. A mile away is daft, you’ll still have to get a bus from there.

Why not tunnel to the airport and have an escalator from the platform to the terminal building?

Ian Williamson

Just build a proper airport at Church Fenton with the A1 nearby and a proper rail link instead of trying to make an airport on top of an hill work

Al Dalton

To be honest I get the 757 to the airport from outside the train station, they’re every 10 mins, it’s pretty easy. Right to the door.

Kevin Dransfield

Unless the train station is connected to the airport like Manchester there seems very little point. Either do it properly or spend the money elsewhere.

All change on the buses

A £180m overhaul of buses was announced yesterday in the Yorkshire Evening Post promising new park and rides, more frequent services and nearly 300 extra buses.

The plans, announced by Leeds City Council, included a £71m investment from bus firm First to provide 287 new buses by 2020. Our readers took to Facebook to leave their comments on the story. Here’s a selection of your views:

Lee Ellis

So first are adding 284 buses to the fleet to which they will go off tracker and cancel them with five mins of arriving, when they’re wanting more people to become dependent on them an using less cars on road to ease traffic

Alistair Brown

Unless they’re getting rid of First etc. and putting them back under local authority control what’s the point?

Barbara Marsden

To ease congestion we need more park and ride schemes all over the city. You only need to use it once to see the benefit.

A century of Cub Scouts

Steve Backshall, Cub Scout Ambassador for Yorkshire Scouts.

2016 is Cubs100, the centenary of the Cub Scout movement, and I’m lucky and proud to be ambassador for their monumental birthday party. December 16 is the 100th birthday and like the Cubs from Yorkshire I will be renewing my Cub Scout promise.

It’s been an incredible year so far with trips, fundays and camp outs, but the best is yet to come with Cubs 100 birthday parties taking place across the country this week.

For 100 years Cub Scouts have been helping in their communities and this year is no different. Through our “A Million Hands” project Cubs in Yorkshire have been helping to make their community a better place to live and work.

I would also like to shout out to the volunteers in Yorkshire for their dedication each week to giving Cubs the chance to experience big adventures and take part in activities that could be life-changing. Volunteers - we salute you!

During this special week, I would just like to say a big happy birthday to cubs past and present as we look forward to another 100 years of endeavour; learning new skills, having fun and making lifelong friends.

Trains needed to ease congestion

Clive Broadhead, retired civil engineer, by email

The new Government has said it intends to invest in road improvements, so should immediately release funding to North Yorkshire County Council to construct a by-pass of Harrogate from the A658 south of Pannal to the A61 north of Ripley. In addition, the A661 needs to by-pass Spoffoth and Wetherby to join the A1(M) at Junction 46.

Assuming the rail network is included in the plans, modern rolling stock on the Knaresborough to Leeds service is now urgently needed, to reduce local congestion and get more commuters off the urban roads.

Where will it move on to?

Liz Goodwill, by email

Congratulations LCC, 740 homes for the “private sector”, to create a “bigger better private rental market” for people . But nothing for the poor saps that already live here in Holbeck.

I wonder what you will do with “your managed area then”? Dump it elsewhere I expect, and Wetherby/Barwick etc think they have it rough!.

Comments not poison darts

Alan Thompson, Bramhope, Leeds

Darts player Eric Bristow is the latest person to be hung out to dry courtesy of those whose mission in life is to be permanently offended.

Admittedly, his comments in relation to allegations of historic abuse in football were not the most articulate.

But did he deserve to lose his job at SKY and then to be harangued by the hypocritical and condescending?

It is a pity that such individuals do not inflict their outrage on those that deserve it, such as the perpetrators of such heinous crimes as child abuse.

The right-on, PC brigade of social media is certainly doing its upmost to dilute our freedom of thought.