From cyclists to church thefts - your views

7:37am Thursday 24th July 2008

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Let little ones play in safety

After reading your article about the pensioner C Holly angry that a play ban is being ignored, may I add my two pennies' worth and I am sure a lot of people will agree with me.

I am myself a resident of Long Lee and my daughter, son-in-law and two children, aged eight and 11, live on the Walk. These houses are family homes and have been occupied by the same families with young children longer than the two years C Holly has lived there.

I have always found the children in these houses to be polite and well brought up by their hard working parents. Surely they are doing no wrong in letting their little ones play where they can be seen, as have others before them.

I could sympathise if this area was been used by older youths but come on, little children!

Mrs S A Johnson Long Lee

Praise for bus drivers

Being a regular user of the Keighley and District service No 500 to Hebden Bridge, I often admire the ingenuity of the bus drivers on this route, having to negotiate already narrow roads, made worse by inconsiderate car owners, who think they have a God given right to park outside their front door.

The problem is especially bad in Haworth, Oxenhope and Pecket Well, another being where the road drops down into Hebden Bridge, a stretch which should have double yellow lines on both sides, parking on such a road is stupid, as well as dangerous.

A Shipman Harley Gardens, Leeds.

Cyclists'lack of thought

I'd like to bring everyone's attention to the danger on the roads in the local area in the hope they can be forewarned.

On Thursday, July 10, driving home around seven in the evening we were about seventh in a row of cars driving slowly, below the speed limit, from Burley. We finally realised what the hold up was when we saw a cluster of cyclists stretched across the left-hand side of the road.

As far as I am aware, cycling proficiency, which is taught to small children in primary school, tells us to stay in single file at the side of the road; a rule even the children clearly understand. For those adults who may not have had such a lesson, the Highway Code also, which by law needs to be thoroughly understood before entering on to the roads, tells us to "never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding around bends". These cyclists were breaking the law and it's that simple.

One straggler at the back at one point decided it was all too much just before the bypass and performed a U-turn on the right-hand side of the road infront of an oncoming car and then mounted the pavement. Did he at least signal to do this? Of course not, don't be so silly, a flap of his arm with no looking around is surely sufficient. The other Highway Code rule to never "ride in a dangerous, careless or inconsiderate manner" clearly was just not important enough to be adhered to here.

What became more annoying for us car users, and so much more dangerous for the cyclists, was that they continued in this fashion all the way down the bypass to Addingham, leaving some cars too worried the group was too wide to even bother overtaking.

This wasn't a scheduled, official, race but seemed more to be like a club for enthusiasts. I hope one of them is reading this. I would like to ask them to be aware of their own safety on the road. I would like them to read the Highway Code. I would like them to ask their kids what they learnt in their cycling proficiency tests. I would like them to show consideration for the law. I would like them to show consideration and respect for the tax paying cars that the road was intended for. I would remind them not to look back at us cars with an incredulous look when we are trailing right behind them trying to find a way past. I would like them to find a safer way to display their lycra-clad "muscle" in a less inane way.

The road was not made for cyclists to ride five abreast down a bypass where the speed limit is around 50-60mph and where cyclists can only do about 30mph. The law does not support these acts. Please find another way to stave off your mid-life crisis and leave us all to get home safely and in peace.

Olivia Charlesworth St Michael's Way, Addingham.

Police response is tosh!

We have one of the most beautiful churches in the district, if not the country, in St. Joseph's, at Ingrow.

My grandparents and parents, along with many more in the parish, sacrificed a great deal to build our church in the 1930s.

In recent months, the roof has been systematically stripped of it's lead. Nine times they have been back and when the police have been sent for, they have failed to appear, until the perpetrators are long gone.

Even when neighbours have rung the police to tell them where the lead has been stashed, or even to tell them that the thieves have returned to take away their spoils, they have just retorted that they couldn't prove where it came from, or that these men had actually stolen it in the first place. What tosh!

People may think that this is a victimless crime but we, the parishioners, certainly don't share this view. Our priest, Father O'Keeffe, is constantly being disturbed by these mindless intruders.

Also we are constantly trying to raise funds to keep our church in good order, in grateful thanks to our forefathers, who put so much effort into building our wonderful church.

Why is it that thieves and perpetrators of crime have all the rights on their side and we, Joe Public, have to put up with it.

Until something is done about this problem, they will just keep returning, with no fear of prosecution.

Mary Cryer Broomhill Avenue, Keighley

Say 'no' to state funeral

I have just read to my horror and disgust that this so-called Labour Government has sanctioned a state funeral for M H Thatcher.

May I remind you and Mr G Brown that this woman was responsible for the destruction of the coal industry and the privatisation of our utilities.

These now languish under foreign control, holding us to ransom over supplies of gas and electricity.

Instead, M H Thatcher should have been brought before Parliament to answer for her crimes against the British people. The deep divisions in the country she caused may never heal.

We have not forgotten Orgreave and Wapping. This event will further rend the country apart by throwing salt in to unhealed wounds. I will not be alone in building a bonfire to burn M H Thatcher in effigy on that occasion which will go down in infamy.

I implore you to do everything you can to ensure it never happens.

Mrs Cheryl Gray and Mr C Richard Joy, Thwaites, Keighley.