From keeping nuclear deterrent to Keighley's heritage - your views

From what I understand from your pages, the “Wheels and Flames” statue seems to have been given away to the whim of some Bradford Council employee. Surely to dispose of some piece of council property would require permission of a councillor or council committee?

Who authorised this? Was it Cllr Naylor, the portfolio holder. We need to be told.

What is Keighley Town Council doing about this? They seem to be very quiet on the subject. Were they not consulted on the market extension or have they colluded in the giving away of this important sculpture? Why was the sculpture not simply resited in say Towngate or one of several suitable sites I could think of?

If this mistake is allowed to proceed unchecked and unreversed then the Airedale Centre will have no opposition if it decides to smash up or give away the Rombald statue.

I look forward to the return of this statue to the town centre.

D M Petyt

Oakworth

I have been following the news about the “Flames” sculpture previously sited outside Keighley Market.

While I never found it very beautiful, and it certainly needed painting, I feel strongly that it should remain in the town centre. What about putting it up on a good steel pole, well above head height. That way it wouldn’t really take up any space and could probably go back in front of the extended market.

Jim Walker

Briggs Farm House, Laycock Lane, Keighley

While I approve of the “Love Keighley” campaign and was grateful to receive my shopping bag and key ring with this logo, I do not approve of the permanent removal of the prestigious “Flames and Wheels” sculpture without so much as a by your leave.

I wonder whether anyone in Keighley or Bradford Council loves Keighley enough to make sure that the people of Keighley have a say in what happens to this statue along with the impressive interpretation of our borough crest.

Barbara Bailey

Scott Lane West, Riddlesden

As one of the councillors of the works committee of the old Keighley Borough Council, it is my memory that the area between Market Street and Low Street was chosen for a sculpture because it made it accessible to everyone in Keighley for them to admire, love or even hate. I do not believe that just because councillors made this decision in 1971 the statue should never be moved but if this is to be done then the question of its accessibility to the public should be uppermost in finding a new site. Our Lady of Victories simply does not meet that criteria.

The town should certainly be looking at the idea of a town sculpture trail, for look 10ft above your head as you walk along North Street or down Cavendish Street and there is a wealth of carving by local craftsmen and as well there’s that curious bowler-hatted gentleman and his friends on the Parkwood Chimney. Yes, a sculpture trail is a great idea and there would certainly be a place on it for the “Wheels of Industry” sculpture.

Michael L Scarborough

Southlands Grove West, Riddlesden

Following on from an item in the Keighley News, I too was horrified to find that the treasures of Keighley were being sidelined.

The statue outside the market being one. I’m sure if it can’t be put back in its rightful place there are other suitable places in the town centre where it can be seen by the general public without them having to walk well out of town and uphill to find it in a school playground. I don’t think this is ideal.

I also hope the Keighley coat of arms will be put back on the market front, where it was before, when the refurbishment is complete.

Finally, I really miss the rock with the cup and ring stones which also seems to have mysteriously vanished from the seating area near the Bradford & Bingley bank and Lloyds Bank.

Where has it gone? Why was it moved?

It sometimes appears Keighley is not allowed to keep its own mementoes, other towns manage it, or is it just the planners who think they know best?

L Shearing

Halsteads Way, Steeton

Justice is a right - not by charity

Having attended the recent coroner's court for the inquest into the “death at work” of Steven Allen I would like to offer some personal thoughts on this matter.

Firstly, I wish to thank the Keighley News for their extensive and sympathetic coverage of the inquest. However, this must tempered by the proviso that this press coverage was only local not regional or national as it would have been if his death had been the result of a more high profile cause such as knife crime. This reflects the low priority given to deaths at work.

Secondly, I wish to stress the inadequacies of a legal framework covering deaths at work. The jury was unable to consider a verdict of accidental death caused by gross negligence because this verdict had never previously been applied to a case involving a death at work. As your report indicated, several failings in the protection given to Steven Allen by his employers are now being considered by the Health and Safety Executive with a view to prosecution under Health and Safety Law.

Finally, it cannot be a just system where the bereaved relatives must rely on charity or their own savings to access legal representation.

The employer has no such constraint and can fund legal advice at all points in a process, which took nearly two years from the date of the death to the final inquest hearing.

From an initial contact with Keighley Worksafe and Keighley TUC through an informal network the family eventually was represented by Mick Antoniw, from Thompsons Solicitors, but this should surely be theirs by right not by charity.

Dave Towers

The Chase, Keighley

Must keep nuclear deterrent

I have to disagree with the implications in the letter from Sylvia Boyes which was published in last week’s Keighley News. She advocates the need for nuclear disarmament but I feel that such a course of action might well turn out to be disastrous for our country.

We must at all times maintain a nuclear deterrent as long as unstable nations like Iran and North Korea continue to pose a threat with their own nuclear weapons.

When the nuclear explosion took place over Hiroshima I was serving with the Royal Navy in Singapore and I had seen at first hand the effect of the appalling treatment meted out to British servicemen who had been used by the Japanese Occupation Force as slave labour to build the infamous Burma-Siam Railway. Hundreds had died.

I was also one of the first British servicemen to enter Singapore’s dreaded Changi Jail and free the emaciated internees.

With the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima the war ended abruptly and relief and freedom came to civilians and servicemen alike.

Equally important was the defeat of Imperial Japan’s plan to take over the whole of the Far East.

With reference to the review in 2010 of the nuclear non-proliferation plan, I shall contact my MP and urge the government not to sign it.

Alec Aspinall

Westview Way, Woodville Road, Keighley

Return to Bradford ASAP

I feel I must respond to the letter from Mrs Stack. I was appalled and insulted by this letter. By her own admission she has only “recently” moved to Keighley.

Her language was highly personal and emotive for so recent a resident. Does she spend her time in the public gallery of the town council chamber to be able to judge so readily?

I would suggest that if she finds Keighley such a terrible place to live, that she return to Bradford as soon as possible and leave the people of Keighley to know what is best for their town.

C D Ward

Branshaw Grove, Keighley

Parliamentary democracy

I really do try very hard not to be incensed by provocative letters in your columns but last week’s gratuitously insulting letter from Mrs Geraldine A Stack, of Ridgemount Road, Riddlesden, should not go unanswered.

Whatever she may think of it, the town council is the legitimately established first tier authority for Keighley, with democratically elected members, the majority of whom work very hard for their constituents and their wards, without a salary and on an allowance of £1.37 per day.

Yes, it is true that four town councillors (out of a total of 30) have resigned from all their committee positions and now frequently vote in unison against every motion put to the council, but if that is the way in which they chose to represent their constituents, then that is their right and their electors will doubtless take note. That’s not “falling out”, that’s parliamentary democracy ! Mrs Stack’s opinions of Keighley town councillors are clearly not shared by the local Conservative Party which currently has four former or existing Keighley town councillors representing Bradford district wards and has just selected a fifth in town councillor Ronald Beale. A lady who has lived all her life in Bradford and only recently moved to Keighley is not likely to appreciate the huge loss which the town suffered when the borough council was abolished, nor the strenuous efforts which have been made since to re-establish local decision-making in Keighley.

For all its perceived faults, the town council authentically represents the voice of Keighley people, which has for 30 years all too often gone unheard in City Hall. Get to know Keighley folk a little better, Mrs Stack before condemning us so robustly !

R Graham Mitchell

(A born Keighleian) Dockroyd Lane, Oakworth

Touch your cap mentality

I fully understand Mrs Stack’s anger at the Keighley Town Council’s preposterous rate rise of 8.8 per cent in these times. At least five councillors voted against the rise. I walked out of the council chambers in anger at what I saw as a financial blow against taxpayers after I was stopped because I had wanted to pursue a second question to assembled members of council with regard to the tax question.

People like myself are furious that the customs of the 1920/30s Keighley Borough Council and its “touch your cap” mentality had been brought back into this 21st century by rules that have produced, in my humble opinion, a small cabal of members in council who would wish to bring back the master/servant mentality.

Forceful debate in chamber is, again in my view, frowned upon, as some members have a wish to go home as quickly as possible.

The committees are structured in such a way that the ward councillors, outside of committee structure, are treated as antagonistic lepers, when all we require are honest answers. If Mrs Stack gets her way, and she has my sympathy in this matter, let us hope that a more thoughtful body will design a council fit for today’s purposes.

Cllr David Samuels

Spring Gardens and Utley Ward

Information for incomers

Mrs Stack’s letter of last week made me realise that some “incomers” may need informing of the need for the town council in Keighley. As someone who is born and bred in Keighley and a retired town councillor perhaps I can explain.

Pre 1974 Keighley had a borough council and the town thrived. In 1974 the plans from Westminster meant that the borough council was disbanded with control of Keighley moving to Bradford. The effect on Keighley is that it got lost in the bigger whole.

So Keighley Voice was born as ordinary local people got together and started bringing Keighley’s plight to the attention of the “powers that be”, eventually they became Keighley Town Council.

Since their advent their involvement has lead to major improvements in Keighley — a new bus station, refurbishment of the library and market, the Airedale Masterplan, Keighley Town Centre Association and smaller things like the overhaul of town centre pavements. Many of these things may not have been done by KTC but they probably would not have happened without the town council pushing for them and in some cases supporting them with your precept money, they also re-invest much of this with the town in ways to numerous to mention. All of this has improved the “feeling” of Keighley and is giving it back a sense of identity. I would ask the question: “What would Keighley be like now if the town council had never existed?”

I do not say they are perfect — neither do they — they disagree and you hear about it because it is not glossed over by party machinery (they are mainly independent because they believe the needs of Keighley must come first).

There is a “Love Keighley” campaign running now. Your town council has always “loved” Keighley — they “kept faith” with the town when everyone despaired of it. We must “keep faith” with them as they do their work for us. They do have expenses beyond their control yet still manage to cost each person, on average, less than 15p per week. It doesn’t seem bad value, even for a “tight” Yorkshireman.

Gordon Earnshaw

Prospect Crescent, Fell Lane, Keighley