Letters to the Editor

With regards to the Steeton “community hub” story in last week’s Keighley News.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words! If you can be happy with that industrial unit as a central focal point of a village, then I think the council and architects have missed the point. Who would be happy looking at that in any village?
Thanks for the photo in the Keighley News.
How can anyone defend that monstrosity? I have no doubt a community hub is a great idea but what a missed opportunity. Just ask the council a simple question – would they like it building next to their house – and therein will you get your answer!

C HANNAH
Parkway
Steeton

Before I criticise the new community hub building at Steeton I have an admission to make.
I did not take part in the consultative process which preceded its approval. I had two reasons for this. One was that since the lingering death of local democracy, begun by Mrs Thatcher’s government and completed by succeeding ones of both political persuasions, so-called consultation is meaningless. The local press has weekly accounts of objections to planning proposals, none of which succeed. Steeton has had its fair share.
The other was that I naively thought a proposal which was in the hands of the parish council, in collusion with the district council/planning authority, could surely be trusted to bring about a result which would safeguard the visual amenity of Steeton.
Not so! The hub is now in place and we have a building which in its design, colour and materials is straight off a modern industrial estate, and could not be more out of keeping with its Airedale-village surroundings.
Its high, off-centre roof ridge in particular seems designed to overreach the park and proclaim and project its ugliness as far as possible. The single most obtrusive planning atrocity in Steeton to date must be the ‘Monster Shed’ warehouse next to Robin Drive, (which went up despite consultation and concerted objection). At least this is on the outskirts, which I know is of no consolation to the unfortunate householders who have to live in its shadow, but now we have the hub, ‘Son of Monster Shed’, whose grotesque intrusion will deface the village centre and offend the gaze of nearby residents, users of the little park in which it stands, and all those who pass by, for decades to come.

RICHARD HODGSON
Thornhill Road
Steeton

Regarding the future of the former Keighley College complex, surely this should have been sorted before planning permission was given to build the new one. Can anyone tell me why we needed a new one when we already had a perfectly good one in the first place?
But now that it is empty, surely the best possible use for it would be to turn it into apartments, like Urban Splash did at Manningham Mills in Bradford.
This is where the affordable housing should be, in the heart of the town, where the work is. But no, they want to build yet more houses on the green fields in the villages of Steeton and Haworth, creating yet more congestion on our already over-crowded roads.
As for Steeton’s new community centre, it is just a smaller version of Damart’s ‘Monster Shed’, which we also have to endure in Steeton. It seems the planning department will pass anything these days.

STEPHEN SIMPSON
Halsteads Way
Steeton

Inspiring project that builds social capital

I was fortunate last week to attend the annual meeting of Project 6, the Airedale Voluntary Drug and Alcohol Service based in Temple Street, Keighley.

I was there because I had been invited to join their board of trustees; something that an impending house move will now prevent me from carrying through.

At a time when the media was full of reports from the political party conferences and we were all asked to be amazed that party leaders could speak publicly for an hour ‘without notes’, I drew a sharp comparison with two of the speakers who addressed the Project 6 meeting.

One was a service user and the other a volunteer with the organisation. Both spoke passionately and with deep feeling about the difficulties they had experienced in their lives and how the workers at Project 6 had been immensely helpful in enabling them to see and join a path to recovery. They had no notes or speech writers but rather spoke from the heart in an inspirational way that gave other service users present the hope to continue and the staff the encouragement to do more.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford also attended the meeting and speaking from his notes confirmed the excellent work currently being delivered by Project 6, but also reminded those assembled commissioners of services needed to be able to quantify in financial terms, costs, savings and value for money in an economic climate where ‘demonstrating added value’ was paramount.

He had perhaps overlooked the fact that added value could also come from building ‘social capital’, a concept seemingly still unknown to most politicians and maybe also service commissioners.

Project 6 has a well thought through set of core values – also explained well at the meeting – not least being a belief in the ability of people to change. Demonstrating value for money will remain a criterion for success for voluntary sector organisations delivering key local services. But by ‘helping people to help themselves’ and demonstrating service users have a clear exit strategy from Project 6 demonstrates social capital can readily translate into people becoming net contributors to the economy. That is real added value.

The organisation is extremely well run and managed by a very competent and professional team of staff supported by a dedicated group of volunteers. It is strategic in its approach, flexible in its delivery and respected by those that use its services.

If you have management skills that could support and augment the current hard-working group of trustees talk to the Project 6 chief executive to explore possibilities.

DAVID POTTS

Crosshills

Road Cononley

‘Marvellous’ night of real ale and music

What a marvellous time we had on Friday night at the Exchange Arts Northern Beer Festival.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but was greeted with 30 beers and ciders, comfy sofas, pie and peas and a film to distract us whilst waiting for the live music.

Well lit, a really welcoming atmosphere and not a glimpse of a Red Dwarf T–shirt or the lingering aroma of BO that has greeted me at some other beer festivals. A wide range of people mingling freely.

Working at Jam Radio, I had heard of local band Foxes Faux, but hadn’t heard any of their material. When they bounced onto the stage with grins as wide as the River Aire in flood, I knew we were in for something special. What could be more perfect than a local Keighley band that play danceable, uplifting music while swapping instruments and beaming at each other and the audience. They have an EP available for free download on their website and I haven’t stopped playing it, particularly their cover of Outkast’s Hey Ya. I believe they are playing at the Worth Valley/Oxenhope Festival on October 26 and then back to the Exchange on December 15. Catch them while you can.

ANTONY SILSON

Skipton Road

Utley

Seeing red over colour change for postboxes

The recent squabbles in the town council were alarming to see. On the one hand some councillors are preparing us for the worst, while others are denying everything. We are talking about the civic centre.

I noticed around the time towns and cities were painting postboxes gold, Keighley gets a blue one... was it connected to the Olympics or has the Royal Mail gone mad, or is it another waste of our money like the railings around the town hall square?

Keighley Council, can I ask a question? Will our council tax go up (Keighley payers) this next year as I said it would in my last letter to the Keighley News to help prop-up the sinking ship or civic centre? Or to pay for more blue postboxes?

Oh, one more question, where is the council’s glossy magazine printed in Keighley I ask – at a local printers? Utter waste of money. Maybe Bradford should let Keighley run the toilets as that’s a job I’m sure they are up to!

PAUL COOK

Long Lee