YEP Letters: March 15

About time building was restored

Jaimes Lewis Moran, Seacroft

In response to the news that the decades-old York Road library could be soon turned into a gym and fitness centre (YEP March 10) it’s about time this building was restored.

As you probably know, it has been falling apart for decades and is in dire need of repair. I’m glad to hear this building will finally get the attention and appreciation it deserves. Hopefully, this will lead to many other empty and listed buildings (in Leeds) being developed too.

Why not a project aimed specifically at caring for the homeless for instance? There does seem to be loads of suitable and empty buildings for this.

Council has no right to stick misguided oar in

Caroline and Jeremy Spillane, by email

It was alarming to read in the YEP (March 13) about the council’s consultation on banning proposed new takeaways within a quarter of a mile of schools.

We run a fish and chip shop that is within that distance from Woodkirk Academy and we get pupils buying our food on a lunchtime. Our shop was built as a chip shop in 1936, years before the school was built, so this proposed ban won’t affect us.

We have a great deal of respect for councillor Tom Leadley, who we know well, however, on this he is wrong. The council are overreaching their remit in trying to ban something that is totally legal and debatably healthy.

We are all aware how the latest advice from the ‘experts’ keeps changing on an almost monthly basis. The current advice from the health ‘experts’ is that saturated fat is good for you and sugar is the evil in food. For the last fifty or so years we have all been indoctrinated that fat is bad and sugar is fine – now the experts have looked at the evidence and decided it’s the other way round, hence low-fat meals which have more sugar in them than ordinary meals are partly what is causing the obesity epidemic.

Frying as we do with healthy ingredients in the best beef dripping, which is the healthiest fat to fry in, as it degrades the least with the high temperatures, turns out to produce the healthiest food.

Maybe the council should ban sweet shops instead. Until central government make fast food illegal, then the council have no right to stick their misguided oar in. They should stick to what they know best, frittering millions of pounds of our money away on unused and dangerous cycle lanes.

Woodkirk Academy have chips on their school dinner menu, so by coming to us, the pupils are at least getting a fifteen minute walk and getting a hot meal possibly cheaper than at their school. Until the school pupils are locked in at lunchtime and forced to eat just salad, then the council should keep the planning situation just as it is.

Fight for transport the people want

D Angood, by email

An open letter from Couns Blake, Lewis and a transport “expert” attempts to give sound reasons for a station over a mile away from the airport.

We all are supposed to believe that their assumptions are correct. They believe they are but when you assume you generally tend to make an “ass out of you and me” and I think this is the case here.

Their whole argument is based upon what they think, not on what is possible. They quote their option scores lower on three points but how much lower does it rate against the rest of the points? The lower the cost does not mean a better option. The time scale may be an element in the equation but surely a more practicable option is worth waiting for. A park and ride double up? Have they studied the surrounding road network? Have they included the cost of improvements to cope with their perceived demand?

Everyone agrees that a station at the airport will pose significant problems but surely we have the technology and the expertise to construct such a vital link? Did the Victorians surmount greater problems without the benefit of such? The benefits that will eventually be accrued from such a link far outweigh the reasoning behind their assumptions.

The existing network can be easily adapted to enable connections to be made, how did Crossrail succeed, surely their priority should be to lobby the government to increase the per capita funding and promote what the area actually needs, not just their perceived “better” option?

Why are they not fighting to give the populace the transport network they want and need instead of half-hearted misbegotten schemes?

The viable solution would be to join the the Harrogate and Wharfedale lines via an airport station. This would give passengers from further afield the option of a connection they do not have.

This could and should be improved drastically by linking the two stations in Bradford. The airport would then be served by diverting existing services providing travellers with a feasible and viable.

For example: York-Harrogate-airport-Leeds and vice versa, Ilkley-airport-Leeds-all points east-south and north, York-Leeds-airport-Bradford-all points west.

The permutations could be endless with those links in place. Have our councillors and MPs got the backbone and resilience to make it happen?

R A Butler, by email

I see Blake, Lewis and Foster from Leeds City Council are at it again writing to the YEP with what is best for us.

The sooner they are voted out the better. They have wasted millions of pounds of our poll tax money on various harebrained schemes. Too many to mention but I’m sure the readers of YEP are aware of.I for one give them a vote of no confidence, I wonder how many more people feel the same.

Roll on the next local elections so we can rid ourselves of this band of cuckoo land councillors.

Guards critical to rail safety

Iain Dalton, Leeds 8

I was somewhat surprised to see that your piece on Monday’s strike by RMT members on Northern Rail did not include a quote from the union explaining why they were striking. What the company euphemistically calls ‘modernisation’ is actually a downgrading of passenger safety by removing safety-critical guards from trains.

These changes will hit the most vulnerable passengers, such as those with disabilities, the hardest. The only thing modern about this is our government’s desire to throw the most vulnerable in society under the bus (or train in this case!)

What a travesty it is that our Labour council, through its membership of Rail North, effectively co-sponsored these dangerous proposals along with the government. I hope the strike will bring the authorities to the realisation of the dangers of these proposals and their prompt withdrawal.

Until then I’d rather face rail journeys being disrupted by strikes rather than the more substantial disruption caused by accidents happening due to the removal of safety-critical guards.

You have to hand it to the trains

Graham Braithwaite, by email

The wizards of Northern Rail conjured up 300 buses this week as replacements for the problems on the trains. How odd it is, then, that our two main bus providers fail to find a few replacements when a driver runs out of time or a bus goes on the blink. They’ll cite differing circumstances, and we maybe have to grant them that, but for sheer resourcefulness and customer service you have to hand it to the trains.

Lottery awards

John Barrowman, National Lottery Awards Ambassador

The National Lottery Awards 2017 are open for entries, giving Lottery-funded projects a chance to shine in the national limelight.

The Awards recognise the amazing work done by organisations using National Lottery funding to transform communities and change lives.

Every week National Lottery players raise £30 million for good causes and, since 1994, over 500,000 Lottery grants have been awarded. Seven projects will be recognised at a star-studded awards ceremony broadcast on BBC One later this year and each will win a £3,000 cash prize. Visit www.nationallotteryawards.org.uk/awards to nominate projects. Entries must be in by midnight on Friday April 7.