Why waste taxpayers money on tip work?

I feel the need to write to yourselves to vent my disgust at the so called improved Sugden End Tip .

Having not used the facility since before Christmas I needed to dispose of some rubbish, I was absolutely amazed when I arrived to find that the tip had received a makeover, new signs, the road painted, speed ramps fitted, brightly coloured bollards, plastic chains, all supposedly installed to improve the place for the public!

Well what a complete and utter waste of the taxpayers’ money, at a time when councils are having their budgets cut and public services are being cancelled and people are losing their jobs. How can somebody justify wasting all that money on actually making a tip look like a fairground and actually making it more difficult to use. I have used the tip many times over the years and never once had a problem — drive in, dispose of rubbish, drive away, friendly staff there to help you if you need it. The place now looks like a fairground with all the brightly coloured signs and painted roads, there’s even signs telling people to ask the staff for advice. Why would they need to do that if they have got their signage right? I simply cannot understand why this has been done, is it for health and safety or did someone just decide that we need to waste the taxpayers’ hard earned money?

Greg Boole

Oakworth

A council spokesman said: “Since full planning permission was obtained the Household Waste Recycling Centre, at Sugden End, Halifax Road, Cross Roads, has undergone a moderate refurbishment in line with other sites.

“New fencing and signage has been erected and an improved one-way system has been introduced following three near-miss incidents.

“As well as making the site safer for users and our staff, the signage will make it easier for users to segregate their waste into the right containers, which we expect will improve the recycling performance of this key site.

“We appreciate that due to the narrowness of the site and the new traffic systems customers may experience slight delays when disposing of their waste, for which we apologise.

“However, the safety of site users and staff are of paramount importance.”

Tarn turning into eyesore

After just returning from my daily walk to Keighley Tarn I feel the need to express my disgust at the state of it, this lovely place is turning into an eyesore.

There’s dog mess everywhere (it’s your dog, take responsibility and pick it up), bread bags (you’re kind enough to feed the ducks but not take the rubbish home with you), a daily paper blowing about in the wind, car ashtrays that have been tipped out and the contents, which are so obviously from the cannabis that is smoked up there on an evening (this information is no big secret to Keighley people but is obviously a secret to the police seeing as how you never see their presence up there), takeaway containers (which they enjoy after having their joints), high energy drink cans (which don’t work otherwise they would get up off their lazy bums and use the bins provided, instead of just opening their car windows and chucking the rubbish out).

Why do we never see any park rangers up there? Maybe their presence would make a difference throughout the day, then the police presence at night, this could help to stop this beauty spot being treated as a rubbish dump, dog toilet and quiet haven for drug abuse.

This isn’t only a problem at the tarn. While walking my dog in the Blackhill, Shann, West Lane area, the dog dirt and rubbish on the pavements is unbelievable.

Jill Guest

West Lane, Keighley

Golden wedding service invitation

I am writing to you on behalf of Ripon Cathedral to request your help in publicising our hugely popular Golden Wedding Service.

Any couple married in 1961 and therefore celebrating a golden wedding anniversary in 2011 is cordially invited to a special service of blessing and thanksgiving in Ripon Cathedral, on Sunday, June 12, at 3pm.

The invitation also extends to couples married for more than 50 years and we especially welcome those who have reached the major achievement of a diamond wedding anniversary.

The Golden Wedding Service is always a splendid occasion. I would be very grateful if your readers could let me know of any such couples by sending names and addresses to me c/o The Chapter House, Ripon Cathedral, Minster Road, Ripon HG4 1QT.

Mrs Linda Bennett

Service Organiser, Ripon Cathedral

Car park clampers plumb new depths

Anyone reading your letter from Abigail Ridehalgh will have been left speechless that she was clamped in Haworth’s Changegate car park because she pulled in to breastfeed her distressed baby. The car park operative calmly clamped Ms Ridehalgh’s car while she sat inside it feeding her child and no appeal to him could prevent him from demanding £90 to release the clamp. Your readers will be all too familiar with the practices of the Haworth clampers but surely this incident plumbs new depths. Ms Ridehalgh writes that the operative was “extremely rude” and that she “felt bullied and treated with no humanity”.

Your readers have read such sentiments before but this incident, in particular, illustrates just how inured to feelings of common decency how brutalised those operating the Changegate car park’s policy have become.

If the Haworth clampers’ practices operate outside the moral law they are nonetheless within statute law and last August the Government announced that it would be publishing its Freedom Bill — a measure prohibiting the immobilisation of vehicles on private land. This would be a legislative change that would outlaw the Haworth clampers’ present practices and the Government promised that the bill would be published in November, but three months on, there is still no sign of it. Concerned at the apparent delay of the Freedom Bill, Kris Hopkins tabled a parliamentary question on January 24 inquiring after its progress. When he receives his reply, I hope that he will share it with your readers, and I hope that those of your readers who share my impatience, will also communicate it to Kris Hopkins.

Stephen Whitehead

Haworth