Readers have their say

Over this weekend, some low life decided to smash one of my car windows and stole a number of items out of the car.

My vehicle was parked in my driveway. My whole day was ruined as both my wife and I had planned to go to the East Coast for a day out. Apparently, two more cars were also broken into in this area, a quick fix to fund the drug habit of some very sad individual. I have now become quite accustomed to break-ins.

My wife has had her car broken into four times, I have had the rear window of my car pelted and smashed with a BB gun "bullett" and my house has been sneak thiefed and burgled.

So when I read that crime figures are down, I sometimes wonder where the statistics really are.

Yours fed up completely ...

S H Moore Address supplied

Is 'swear word' acceptable

In the last two copies of the Keighley News, I have seen swear words printed in full, which I thought were illegal to print and which I have never seen before in a family newspaper.

The word concerned describes a sexual act performed on people or animals which is still considered illegal by every religion on the face of the Earth.

Will the police allow the name of this club to be painted on a large wooden sign and displayed on the side of the road?

I would not be surprised if the people who performs this sexual act don't sue the owners of this club for making fun of their preferences under the Human Rights Act.

J G Kirkham Park View Avenue, Cross Roads

Editor's note: I believe the letters refers to the name Funny Buggers for a comedy club.

Hearty singing success

Heart Research UK would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in our national Sing for your Heart week in December.

We reached all corners of the country this year and its thanks to support by local people all over the country that we had our biggest and best year yet. Choirs, bands, schools, offices and groups of friends all over the UK broke out in song and organised fundraising concerts, gigs and carol singing to raise money for our continuing pioneering work in heart research.

Sing for your Heart will be taking place from 8-15 December in 2008 and plans are already under way to make it even bigger than last year. We are looking for choirs to sing in stations and shopping centres, schools to do concerts, companies to run fundraising days and bands or event organisers to put on gigs. Anyone interested should get in contact.

Laura Schofield PR Officer, Heart Research UK, Leeds

Going on and on and on.....

After reading one or two of Tom Smith's more negative articles of late, I have begun to wonder what the point of his column is?

He seems to obtain little joy from life and fights a lonely crusade to spread doom and gloom throughout the readership. Spending week after week looking for the negative aspects of life to moan on about paints a portrait of a very unhappy columnist.

One whose days are taken up thinking of the time when the sun shone everyday and you could leave your front door wide open with your wallet on the doormat and a neon sign pointing to it, perhaps? Do I take it that the title for Mr Smith's column somehow indicates that he "speaks as he finds" and that he is somehow proud of this?

Straight talking just seems to mean a desire to go on and on and on and on about how rubbish everything is. I shan't go as far as recommending raindrops on roses and warm woollen mittens, but couldn't we have a column of what delights he has encountered this week. It's bad enough that the letters page has once again been taken over by the members of Keighley Town Council whining about how it's everybodys fault but theirs, but Mr Smith's column lurking nearby like the Grim Reaper frankly scares me.

I challenge Tom to write about how wonderful it is to live in a rich industrialised country with a population of whom 99.9per cent are genuinely nice and just trying to get along like everyone else. It'll make him feel good and me as well. Which at this time of year is just what we all need.

Antony Silson Skipton Road, Keighley

MP is laying false trails

Ann Cryer's criticisms of post office closures and the influx of East European migrants were characteristically misleading.

As anyone who has followed the year-long local Conservative campaign against post office closures would know, Post Office Ltd has been tasked by the Labour Government with closing down more than 2,500 branches across the country, including four in Keighley and Ilkley. Rather than take the opportunity to challenge the policy of her Labour Government on this issue before now, Mrs Cryer took the easier option of remaining silent.

Then, with just days to go before the closures are confirmed, she launches an attack on those individuals tasked with doing her Government's dirty work. In so doing, she is seeking to promote confusion among her constituents when an embarrassed apology would have been the very least they should expect.

She also complains about the strain being placed on the district's education system by the increasing numbers of East European migrants. However, she neglects to mention that this problem has arisen as a direct result of Labour Ministers grossly underestimating the numbers of migrants they expected when they agreed the terms of the 2004 EU expansion.

As a result, local authorities have not received the additional funding required to cope with the steep rise in numbers of residents living within their borders. Perhaps Mrs Cryer can join me in seeking to persuade her Labour allies to give local authorities more resources to solve the problem rather than concentrating her efforts in laying false trails to cover-up her colleagues' failings.

Kris Hopkins Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Keighley and Ilkley

Home Guard recreated

We are a group who have recreated a Second World War Home Guard Unit for the Cross Roads Haworth, Oxenhope and Oakworth areas.

In order to represent the Home Guard as accurately as possible in displays, could I appeal through your letters page for anyone who served in the Home Guard in Keighley and adjoining areas during the war, who may be able to help with information, papers or photographs relating to the local Home Guard, to make contact. Many thanks.WR28Bn Home Guard "C" Company.

Peter Wedel 01535 662484

Tell tale signs on tramcar

A little extra information concerning the Down Memory Lane feature in your January 3 issue that may interest readers.

The tramcar featured is one of the initial one to eight batch delivered from the Brush Electrical Engineering Company, of Loughborough, to Keighley, early in September 1904. The electric service commenced on Wednesday, October 12 1904.

The car number is indiscernible on the dash panel above the headlamp but the lack of six air scoops on the cantrail above the opening half-lights surmounting the three saloon windows identify the car as one of the one to eight batch. Other tell-tale signs include the top of the fluting on the saloon corner post being slightly lower than on later cars and the rail around the top of the platform dash panel being of steel, this was of wood on later cars.

The lack of advertisements on the upper deck decency panels indicates a date shortly after opening. Advertisement rights on the cars were granted to a Mr Burnley following the tramways committee meeting of June 8 1905 - "wishful to maintain the good appearance of the cars". Keighley had initially insisted that adverts displayed on the cars should be in blue on a buff ground, a condition which caused Mr Burnley some concern as most companies had their own "house colours". Keighley, however, eventually relented and allowed adverts in companies' own colours.

Cars nine and ten, also open top, were delivered in April 1905, differing mainly from one to eight in the details mentioned above. Top covered cars 11 and 12, delivered in October 1906, completed the fleet.

Regarding the horse-drawn tower wagon to the right of the picture, Keighley eventually aspired to a motor-driven unit with the purchase of a 40-horsepower Crossley chassis around 1916.

May I appeal to all readers to have a rummage for old postcards or photographs with a Keighley Tramways theme, I am sure they would be welcome in the Memory Lane feature. Keighley's early tramway history is, I am sure, of great interest to many readers.

A L Ackroyd, Lime Court, Crossflatts