Food festival

The facts are these. We had an informal meeting with town councillors on July 8. This seemed very positive. The steering group had already recognised that the big food hall marquee could no longer be accommodated in the Market Place, and various alternatives were discussed with councillors including relocation of the festival within the town or a partial move to an out of town site.

No firm proposals were made. It was arranged that we would meet again on September 9, a date confirmed with the clerk only a few days before the last council meeting. The object of this meeting was to reach an accord on where the various elements of the festival were to be sited, prior to the September council meeting when a decision would be made regarding what use should be made of the Market Place.

You will therefore understand our sadness at reading your report. This resolution was passed by just four councillors in the absence on holiday of the two members who are also on the festival steering group, including Coun Margaret Knight and Coun Mavis Parry, the council's own representative on the steering group. The debate, as reported in the D&S Times, included several questionable statements by councillors and a total absence of any appreciation of the benefits that the festival brings to the town.

This decision by Leyburn Town Council is a gross discourtesy not only to us but also to the many local people and organisations who have worked hard to make the festival the success it is generally acknowledged to have been. 32,000 people have been encouraged to visit the town over two May Day bank holidays. Many of them must surely be amongst the crowds flocking to Leyburn throughout this summer.

Leyburn Town Council should realise that voluntary effort is a tender plant to be nurtured and cultivated, not trampled underfoot.

DAVID BERRY, ALASTAIR DAVY, GERALD & ANN HODGSON, KEITH & MARGARET KNIGHT, JIM McROBERT, MAVIS PARRY; members of the steering group of the Dales Festival of Food and Drink.

Thorneyfield,

Spennithorne,

Leyburn,

Sir, - I was disgusted to read of the decision of Leyburn Town council to refuse consent for the food and drink festival to be held in Leyburn market as it has done so for the last two years.

The objections appear to be: the town council did not receive any income from the festival; opinions of local people have not been taken into account; the layout caused problems for the fire brigade; businesses reported loss of income for several weeks each year owing to the festival being held in the market square.

I believe that items one to four show how out of touch the town council is. The festival was set up to bring much-needed income and support to Wensleydale after the foot-and-mouth disease and was very successful at doing both. 15,000 people visited over the three days. They supported the endeavour and brought in greatly-needed income. If traders lost income, I would suggest they look to their own management which had not taken advantage of the influx of spenders.

I hope Leyburn Town Council reconsiders the decision and gives wholehearted support to the organisation which worked so hard to put Leyburn on the map.

JOHN WEEDON

The Old Quaker Meeting House,

Carperby.

* See leading article: this page

Majority view

Sir, - I am not often at a loss to understand the reasoning of others, but this time I have completely lost the plot as the saying goes. I'm refer to your leading "Respect is due" (D&S Aug 22).

I was taught many years ago that any person voted in as a councillor was there to represent the people, not themselves.

If a parish, town or district councillor thinks otherwise, they should not have stood in the first place as they win by a majority vote, so it applies that the councillor or councillors should go along with the majority of the people, whatever it is. If a councillor wants his own views known, it would be better to state them then to say: however, the people who voted me into office, by a majority, want the opposite, so I am compelled to go along with them as I have been put here for that purpose.

That is democracy. If it's not that way, we are going to have a dictatorship like a Hitler, Idi Amin or Saddam Hussain; we should have got past that stage. As for respect, you cannot buy it, you earn it and the people of Colburn Town most certainly deserve better than what's been put their way, so when we are given respect and adhered to, then it will be different, and I thank God the majority of our town councillors and district councillors are serving Colburn Town 100pc.

ANNE FRENCH

Copper Beech Way,

Colburn.

Bad idea

Sir, - With effusive support for you readers, Ms Faulkener and M Peacock, concerning the refuse scheme (D&S letters August 15) my husband and I abhor the whole idea.

Who, for a start, has sufficient room for two wheelie bins? The infrequency of collection as well as the inadequacy of access, also the manageability of moving these monstrosities - particularly for so many senior citizens of North Yorkshire! - is abhorrent.

I firmly believe that these aspects and others, have not been taken into consideration by our council. Our garden is far too large, and obviously contains too much garden refuse for such a container to be adequate, even weekly.

Passing the buck from the council to the rate payers, on various issues, is neither respectful nor honest.

KATHLEEN POWLAY

Mill Hill Drive.

Brompton.

Spelling error

Sir, - May I on behalf of many in this village apologise to the Milbank family of Barningham for the incorrect spelling of their name in the pub sign pictured in the D&S last week. This is even more aggravating when the name Milbank is tied to their arms which are displayed on one of the pub signs.

The error has been perpetuated by the last two landlords, to both of whom it has been pointed out with apparently no effect, as has it to the signwriters from the Black Sheep Brewery. Now, sadly, your newspaper has fallen into the same trap.

Col H J A MOORE

Well,

Bedale.

Safety stars

Sir, - I was pleased to see the article in last week's D&S which noted that the companies working at the Wilton International site had won a five-star Health & Safety rating. I'd like to add that Dow (Wilton) Ltd and Huntsman Petrochemicals (UK) Ltd both recently completed shutdowns with excellent safety performance, and marked this by making substantial donations to charities including LUPUS UK. We are most grateful for this, and hope that other companies may wish to follow this example.

ANDY TAYLOR

Chair, NE Lupus Group

Stokesley.

Warmer sea

Sir, - I'm surprised Margaret Cave (D&S, Aug 15)describes the sea off the West of Ireland as so icily cold? I found the sea there warmer than the North-East.

I mean the sea itself not the wind when one comes out of the sea. My Irish visits have been to Sligo and a place called Auchris pier. The warmth may be due to a branch of the Gulf stream. Margaret may have been somewhere not touched by the stream.

R LEWIS

Dennison Crescent,

Birtley.

Pitch battle

Sir, - I refer to the proposal by Yarm Recreation Ground Trust for change of use from public open space to mini rugby pitch.

Some vociferous people will be interested to know that, following a meeting between myself and trust/rugby representatives, the trust has, at my request, withdrawn the planning application.

While it has been common knowledge that I have not been entirely happy with the way this application was originally presented, nevertheless it would have offered juniors (age 7+) the chance to receive excellent coaching by dedicated individuals; it would have given Yarm Town Boys' Football Club a chance to survive, (they play at Acklam and their future is undecided) and given some properly maintained open ground, free from dog-fouling, for casual football use.

Yarm recreation ground has more than 350 youngsters who are coached in tennis, cricket and squash, a privately-funded operation where dedicated volunteers coach and maintain the ground. The success of the various teams involved is a reflection of those volunteers.

Opposition to the plan has come from some residents of Hemingford Gardens and some from The Grove. While this seems to be based largely on misinformation, neither the trust not the rugby club have any wish for neighbourly conflict.

I have been surprised by the level of animosity and unpleasantness by a minority of residents towards both myself and others associated with the trust.

As one resident said to me: "The only thing that matters around here is that value of property continues to increase."

I rest my case.

Coun ANDREW SHERRIS

Leven Road,

Yarm.

Planning concern

Sir, - Alan Davis and Bernard Borman (D&S Aug 15) are right to be concerned, as I am, about practices in the planning procedures of Richmondshire District Council.

Coun Blackie has not fully declared his interests in property development companies based in Northumberland and Hertfordshire and is allowed to influence planning procedures. That cannot be right.

Another issue is the building of medical centres in Richmondshire, outside the customary competitive tendering formulas. Here, against planning guidance, Coun Blackie pushed through the controversial health centre in Brentwood, Leyburn, which fails on planning grounds and a wider vision for health care in the dales.

Coun TONY PELTON

High Green,

Catterick.

Our rights

Sir, - There is little wonder that many hunting people feel they are being unfairly treated by the Government's attempts to legislate against the traditional way of life of a sizeable minority of rural Britain, while they have committed British forces to fight on foreign soil to uphold the freedom of the Iraqi people to live in a democratic society that tolerates minorities.

Our Prime Minister said in his speech to Congress on July 18: "We are fighting for the inalienable right of human kind ...... to be free. Free to be you, so long as being you does not impair the freedom of others. That's what we're fighting for. And that's a battle worth fighting." Was this only spin too?

ANGELA VAUX

Brettanby Manor,

Barton,

Richmond.

Long remembered

Sir, - The North Yorkshire Chorus wishes to express condolences over the death of Nancy McDougle.

She was a founder member of the chorus (since 1969), and a librarian of our music for many years. She was the representative of the chorus with National Federation of Music Societies, now called Making Music, and attended many national conferences.

I am now on that NFMS regional committee, and members there also wish it to be known that she will be remembered for actively contributing in debate and her concern for the welfare of amateur music-making.

She will long live in our memory, not only for her love of music, but also her character, persistence and forthright contribution to the committee and life membership of the chorus.

She was very loyal, and would endeavour to promote the activities of the choir in whatever way she was able; sometimes offering criticism but with the good of the choir at heart.

ANN HUTCHINGS

Making Music Yorkshire Regional Committee; past chairman, North Yorkshire Chorus,

Northallerton.