From bumpkins on buses to risking patient's lives - you give your views (From Keighley News)

From bumpkins on buses to risking patient's lives - you give your views

7:51am Thursday 9th April 2009

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Complainers should volunteer

I am a single parent, have been for 28 years and would no more deliberately cause trouble than any “normal” parent, ie one as part of a couple.

Single parents are always given bad press, they are blamed for most of society’s anti-social problems and yet most of the problems the so called yob culture causes are made by children from a two parent, middle class, family.

Those Cavendish Street traders who did complain about the Lillies project should perhaps volunteer their services to the worthy cause and see that these young girls (and boys in some instances, not all single parents are female) are trustworthy members of society who have been through tough times and want to better their lives, not cause trouble to those around them.

Having people like this causing problems before it even opens must be so disheartening for those involved in its conception. I for one wish them well, may they prove these bigots wrong!

Jayne Pickard

Mytholmes Lane, Haworth

Demonising young people

I would like to congratulate the Keighley Area Planning Panel for approving the No 72 project in Cavendish Street, which aims to offer space and support for the young women of our town and their children.

I would, however, like to register how utterly appalled I am at the attitude of some (not all) Cavendish Street traders who claim the project will encourage anti-social behaviour and somehow lower the tone of the area, damaging its aspirations as a “retail attraction”. What are the shops in our town for exactly? Apparently not ordinary local people judging by these comments. How dare these people demonise a whole swathe of our townsfolk .

We cannot stand by while such a message of contempt and rejection is flung so ignorantly at decent Keighley people.

I would like to suggest to the shopkeepers quoted in your article that this town is more united than you think. If you are prepared to alienate the young women of Keighley you will also find yourselves distancing many others who consider your behaviour to be deeply anti-social.

Anna Pritchard,

View Road, Keighley.

Clampers ruin day out

No doubt you have had many complaints from people who have had their car clamped on the Changegate Car Park, in Haworth.

My family are one of the latest “victims” — my husband, son and myself left home early from Wigan on Saturday morning to travel to Haworth to undertake an eight-mile walk.

As this was our first visit to Haworth we, unfortunately for us, parked on the first pay and display car park we saw. This turned out to be the Changegate Car Park, which we were later informed was the “most notorious car park in Britain”.

Apart from a couple of spaces already occupied, we could choose practically any space to park in. As we had large backpacks and walking boots to change into, I decided to park out of the way in the corner of the car park. We paid £4 for an all day ticket, changed into our walking gear and left the car. We had a lovely walk and returned to our car .

You can imagine our disappointment to discover we had been clamped — the reason being we were not parked in a marked parking bay.

We approached the person from Carstoppers who was one of the rudest men I have ever had the misfortune to meet who told us that we would have to pay £75 to get the clamp released.

We argued that we were parked in a marked bay but the man was having none of it and pointed out some very faint markings in the corner which he said were the correct bays and we were actually blocking them.

We made sure we took plenty of photographs and I have a particularly good one of the parking bay without my car in it which proves beyond doubt our case.

We are not wealthy people by any stretch of the imagination — we have no credit cards or cheque books and are on a very strict budget with our money. To have to pay £75 to these people has caused us so much grief and ruined our lovely day in Haworth.

On our way home, my husband told me that he had booked us into the Ashmount Country House, in Haworth, in July, as a surprise for my birthday. I have asked my husband to ring the hotel to cancel the booking and to tell them the reason why. Although the walk we did was beautiful and we decided while walking that we would definitely come back next week to do a different walk, this experience has left me not wanting to return to Haworth at all.

Melena, Philip and Thomas Moore

Wigan

Country bumpkins on buses

Once again Transdev Keighley & District buses are making cuts to services in April. A couple of years ago the company discontinued their route to Silsden Waterside and last year the already poor service to Skipton, via Silsden, received the hatchet treatment.

Now the last service to Silsden from Keighley (712), leaving at the extremely late time of 10.50pm, will not operate after the 25th of this month.

The bus using “country bumpkins” from Silsden will have to leave the bright lights of the big city at 10 25pm.

Transdev Keighley & District have an expensive fare structure, there is a 30p difference between the fare stage at Steeton and Silsden Railway Station and Steeton Top. When the company raise their fares they never seem to appear in the Keighley News, perhaps a press release might be of use to their customers.

The firm’s Sunday and Bank Holiday morning service to Keighley from Silsden is pathetic, only one journey!

M Toft

Windsor Avenue, Silsden

Risk to patient's lives

I have written to the chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant asking her to reconsider plans to close the Leeds Blood Centre because of the potentially catastrophic threat it could place on patients’ lives at Airedale Hospital. Transporting blood supplies to Airedale Hospital from Sheffield rather than Leeds would almost double the length of the journey and increase the risk to patients’ wellbeing. It is a very worrying development and, other than the Government trying to save money, I see no reasonable argument for it.

Blood supplies coming from Leeds to Airedale currently have to travel a distance of 27 miles. However, if the Leeds Blood Centre is forced to close, this journey will increase to more than 50 miles. Blood supplies can often fluctuate and, in an emergency, a lot of blood can be needed at very short notice.

Additionally, we all remember the recent floods in Sheffield which effectively cut parts of that city and, indeed, South Yorkshire off from West Yorkshire. The bottom line is that the closure of the Leeds Blood Centre creates a risk to patients’ lives in Keighley and Ilkley that the Government should not be taking. I have therefore written to Lynda Hamlyn and asked her to reverse this ill-advised decision.

Kris Hopkins

Keighley and Ilkley Conservative Parliamentary Candidate

Shaun Milburn, general manager, diagnostics and therapy services, Airedale NHS Trust, replied: “It is our understanding that only the donor testing facility at Leeds Blood Centre will be transferred to the Sheffield site. This means that when a person donates their unit of blood, it will go to Sheffield and not to Leeds, where important tests will be carried out on the blood to ensure it is safe to use. However, the Leeds Centre will retain its blood storage facility so that once these tests have been completed, the blood will be released from the Sheffield site back to Leeds where the blood will be distributed to the surrounding local hospitals. This will mean that Airedale Hospital will still obtain its blood and blood products from Leeds. It is also our understanding that Leeds will also retain its reference centre function, which means that should the Blood Transfusion Laboratory at Airedale General Hospital require specialist support from the National Blood Service, such as special investigations on rare patient blood types, then that specialist support is still at local level.

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