Cost of by-election to praise for police (From Keighley News)

Cost of by-election to praise for police

7:47am Thursday 28th January 2010

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By-election will cost ratepayers £10,000

I think it is important for the people of Keighley to understand that the forthcoming by-election in Riddlesden and Stockbridge will cost the ratepayers of the whole of the Keighley parish in the region of £10,000, which equates to 3 per cent of the budget. With only 15 months left of this council term, a very democratic and cost effective option was available whereby a person could be co-opted on to the council for that ward. I was told by a councillor that democracy has to be paid for. I would urge people to be careful. Democracy can be used to manipulate, intimidate and exploit situations for ones own purposes. It would appear that this situation may arise again in the town and again ten people could call for a further by-election thereby costing themselves and everyone else in the rest of Keighley parish, a great deal of unnecessary money at this particular time.

The town council exists to be of service to the community to provide help and assistance to groups who would otherwise find it difficult to continue. Therefore, it follows that the funding of one by-election after another will seriously limit the town council’s ability to continue funding such voluntary groups, which will suffer as a result.

CLLR MARGARET WARD

Town Mayor

Great piece of electioneering

Last week’s edition of the Keighley News carried a story headed ‘Split from town council mooted’.

I feel that as one of two councillors for this ward on the Keighley Town Council I must respond and correct a few issues.

I was first made aware of this story over two weeks ago by one of you reporters who asked for my comments. I then contacted Cllr Beale to find out what the problems where in the area. He stated that there were no problems just that he heard a few months ago, after attending an meeting in the area, a couple of people state that if town councillors could not attend the meeting why should they support Keighley Town Council. At no time did he mention that he had been canvassing people on their own doorsteps asking if they would like an election in the area.

Cllr Beale has in my opinion pulled off the greatest piece of electioneering I have ever seen (he is of course standing in the forthcoming local elections has the Conservative candidate for the district elections) by getting the Keighley News to print such a story.

He has also stated in the article that people are not happy with the town council spending the precept on the wrong things, but still he takes it upon himself to canvass residents to call an election which will cost the precept payers of Keighley £10,000, this will not be funded by the district council, this in itself will equate to 3% of next years precept for the council budget.

Mick Westerman (cllr)

Riddlesden & Stockbridge ward

Never heard any demands

In response to your article: Split from Town Council mooted.

I am surprised to read in your paper that residents of Riddlesden are asking for a new parish council. As a district councillor for the last four years for this area I have never heard one resident make any such demands.

Councillor Beale obviously feels that small is beautiful. If that’s the case then may be he wants to reconsider his decision to stand for Bradford District Council – a council ten times bigger than Keighley Town Council and by the size and location much more remote than the new council he is proposing.

Coun Beale and others have forced a by election when we could have easily co-opted a new member onto the Council – with the agreement of others. Now we face the prospect of an election at great cost to the taxpayer, possibly in the realm of £10,000. This is money that could have been spent on grit bins and other important local priorities.

At a time when money is tight this is an unnecessary expense. On top of this Coun Beale is now asking for a further review and reorganisation at local level. Coun Beale would do well to put his energies into supporting the Town Council to work effectively for local residents rather than spending his time trying to undermine the Council.

On a final note, The Town Councillor for Hainworth and Woodhouse should learn, that it is common decency that any correspondence relating to another councillors ward should be forwarded to the relevant ward councillors in this case Councillors Westerman and Walker. I am sure they are awaiting your apology.

Councillor Steve Pullen,

Coles Way, Riddlesden.

Shame on motorists - well done police

While it is quite common to knock authority and especially the police force for their sometimes heavy handed approach to dealing with situations.

I would like to single out two police officers for praise in dealing with a serious and potentially dangerous situation early last Thursday evening.

The incident occurred outside the Keighley library, where a visually impaired pedestrian, carrying a long white stick for obvious reasons, was trying to cross the road towards the town centre.

The two officers had to deploy their vehicle, with blue lights flashing across the junction, and then escort the pedestrian to a place of safety.

Well done to the pair of them.

Shame on those selfish motorists who were in too much of a hurry to prevent such an incident in the first place!

Peter Fonth

Keighley

Head penned article without knowing it

In my 16 years as a head teacher I achieved a first last week when I wrote most of the front page headline article for the Keighley News without knowing it! The piece about cyber bullying, published without my knowledge, was taken directly from our fortnightly newsletter to parents. I am delighted that the Keighley News picked up on the very serious subject of cyber bullying and the effect it has on pupils and their parents but, although the reporter contacted the school last week, she did not divulge her intention to report this incident and the paper had gone to press before we had time to return her calls. I would have liked the opportunity to give her some updated facts. The incident I described to parents through the school newsletter happened outside school but I felt that as a responsible adult I should try to investigate the incident to alleviate the suffering caused to my pupils. After a thorough investigation, it is clear that the bullying was not carried out by pupils at this school. Everyone at Eastburn works very hard to raise awareness of bullying and prevent it happening.

So thank you to the Keighley News for bringing the dangers of children using Facebook to the attention of your readers but in future please could you ensure you speak to me before publication and have the courtesy to not refer to me as a spokesperson when you haven't actually spoken to me.

Elizabeth Pratt

Head teacher, Eastburn Junior and Infant School

Celebrating student's real achievements

I write in relation to your reporting of the publication of the official figures on examination results (often referred to as the league tables). I was delighted by the prominence you gave to the improvement made by Greenhead High School and your acknowledgement of the quality of South Craven School’s results. However, the table published was confusing as it indicated so called league table ratings for different local education authorities.

As I explained in a press release I sent to you last week, the Government has decided that it will now only publish the figure for five A* to C at GCSE including English & mathematics, not the figure for five A* to C at GCSE, hence the achievement of South Craven where 97 per cent of the year group gained the important threshold is not celebrated. However, the CVA measure which is published is designed to show the progress that students make at secondary school, with a figure of 1,000 representing good progress. The South Craven School result of 1028.8 puts the school in the top 10 per cent nationally.

While I am wary of the way in which such tables can be used to compare schools too simplistically, I do want the real achievements of our young people and the hard work of staff to be celebrated. I also saw no mention of the superb achievement of Craven College, which achieved A-level results that placed it in the top 5 per cent of further education colleges in the country.

Andrew Cummings

Head teacher, South Craven School

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