YEP Letters: February 2

What do you think about graffiti wall?

Steven Mathers, Leeds Kirkgate Market trader and Leeds Kirkgate market management board member.

I am writing as a market trader of Leeds outdoor market and also a member of the Leeds Kirkgate market management board.

I attended a meeting several months ago at which discussions regarding the exterior wall of the outside market, opposite the new John Lewis development heading towards Leeds bus station, as to what would be done with this to make it more inviting to the Leeds public.

I proposed having artist panels depicting the long and interesting history of the Leeds Kirkgate market. The management board agreed this was a good idea and would enhance the look of the market and John Lewis site opposite and attract more clientele.

Unknown to me or the market traders in mid November Leeds City Council had assigned work to commence on the rework of the wall. Upon returning from a Christmas break to my bitter disappointment and disbelief I found the wall had been sprayed in graffiti, which looks like a teenagers’ skate park. This is an utter eyesore, completely uninviting to the Leeds public and a deterrent for the shoppers of the new John Lewis site.

No consultation was given on the plan to do this nor were the market holders/ traders advised of the work being carried out. The market is for the people of Leeds and Kirkgate market is one of the oldest in Europe and has been voted the best market in Great Britain.

The first view from the massive new John Lewis development is simply a graffiti wall, which none of the clientele want to see. This isn’t inviting to our public but is in fact offputting. The original agreed proposal was and would be a much more inviting and eye catching sight, complementing the great history of the market and of great interest to the Leeds people and possibly attracting more visitors.

What I’m wanting is the feedback of the Leeds public to advise on their thoughts and opinions of the graffiti wall.

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School worthy of mention

Jeff Yates, deputy headteacher, Mill Field Primary School, Leeds 7

In your edition of Friday 29th January, I notice that your ‘Top of the Class’ article does not include schools which have offered the best ‘value added’ in terms of those schools which can demonstrate that progress made by pupils between Year 2 and Year 6 is exceptional.

This is measured by a score above a median of 100. Schools like Mill Field Primary School in LS7 (rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ with ‘outstanding’ leadership in 2015) are often neglected in ‘Top of the Class’ articles, despite showing progress scores which often exceed those of schools in more privileged parts of Leeds. I think schools in this category are more than worthy of a mention, as they are often outperforming schools in more affluent areas.

Service is lifeline

Richard Harding, by email

RE: Axing of the 22 bus service. As usual 99 per cent of the public have to suffer, because the mindless unsocial behaviour of the local yobs!

This service is a lifeline to people of Swillington. It is 100 per cent reliable, unlike the number 9 service run by First Leeds buses.

All the drivers are polite and helpful. Please rethink before you withdraw this service.

Do something positive

Roy Pearson, Leeds 9

The austerity programme, forced upon us for the last six years, has floundered.

Things have got worse and millions of ordinary people have suffered from Tory dogma and incompetence.

The myth that we live in a democracy and only Conservative politicians are capable of running the economy is totally exposed. The Chancellor is claiming that world events are causing the economic slump. How different his attitude was nearly nine years ago when mortgage defaults in America began to snowball around the world resulting in the great recession.

Back then the Tories and their wealthy media friends put all the blame on Labour and Gordon Brown in their usual hypocritical manner.

Nine years on, financial markets are tumbling (some say we are on the brink of financial Armageddon) and, as usual, many ordinary people are getting poorer by the day.

Needless to say it is business as usual for those overpaid and overprotected bankers and chancers in the financial old boys network. Those who keep telling us what a great and righteous Chancellor George Osborne is ignore the idiotic tax arrangement (only 20 per cent of the amount due) subsidised by his relentless raids on pension funds and robbing small savers with extra taxes and low interest rates.

It is time for the posing, posturing politicians to do something positive for the people who pay the piper.

EU reforms

John E. Downing, Morley

May I congratulate David Cameron for his incompetent attempts to negotiate for EU reforms and acknowledge his reverse psychology approach for staying in the EU, being a clever guise to actually encourage a Brexit, can Angela Merkel top that?.