26 Clitheroe Advertiser &Times, Thursday, May 12th, 2005
www.cHtheroetoday.co.uk
' Cllt’herM 422324 (Editorial), 422323 (Advertising), Burnley 422331 (Classified)
Clitheroe 422324 (Editorial), 422323 (Advertising), Burnley 422331 (Classified)
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Clitheroe Advertiser & Times, Thursday, May 12th, 2005 27 Letters to the Editor ] Write to: The Editor. Clillicrou Advertiser .md Tinic.s, 3 King Street, ClUlieruc BB72EW Ediiorial e-mail:
vivicn.mca(
h@castlancsnews.co.idr}— Walking is a non-starter for many people
I AM writing in response to the letter sent in last week by Amanda Waddington which suggested that people walk to Roe- field to use the facilities rather than "waste time complaining". May I point out that as a regular gym
user living in Riraington, I would have a round trip walk of approximately 14 miles. Using the gym three to four times a
week would make this impossible, so a fee of 70p X 4 visits amounts to £2.80 per week, or an extra £145.60 on top of gym fees.
This represents a substantial increase. I also feel that Amanda has completely
missed the point with regards to the GP referral scheme. Would she expect heart attack and
stroke victims to walk to the gym? Also, what about the children/youth
activity schemes? I suggest that Amanda thinks again and
realises the impact of such ah unwise and ill thought out decision by our council.
JUDITH CUNLIFFE, Riminglon
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Destruction on a
massive scale THE Kibble Valley District Group of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has obtained a document which appears to set out the details of the proposed Forest of Rowland Visitor Centre development in Gis- bumForest. It makes horrific reading for any
one who is concerned to protect the rural environment from dubious economic development at the expense of the very features which are the heart of the areas attractive ness. As the document says Gisburn forest is “an undiscovered and untouched countryside just waiting for the high spending visitor to expe rience and explore.” CPRE ques tions the truth of the first part of the statement. The very fact of its remoteness and Tvildness in a coun ty not over blessed with remote and wild places means that its “discov ery” has perhaps been limited - to those who appreciate remote and wild places. As to the second part of the statement CPRE is horiified at what this will mean. Let us enlight en you. "The High Spending Visitor (only
one?) apparently will require: • An interpretation and informa
tion area • A conference centre • Offices and workshop space • Gallery (Purpose unspecified
but arty-crMty in a City centre way = a mini shopping mall?) 0 Cafe/restaurant 0 Food and craft hall 0 Commercial kitchen and butch
ery
0 Cold store 0 Smoke house 0 External eating area 0 Toilets . Accommodation; 012 high-quality three/four bed
room chalets O Owner’s/manager’s accommo
dation Other facilities: 0 50-space car park (will 50 be
enough for such a grand scheme?) 0 Livery centre 0 Internal site access including
ambulant disabled footpaths 0 Bird hides Actually CPRE would be happy
to see a visitor centre in the forest provided that its scale, design and facilities were in keeping with the nature of the area, and that might ’ include some of the items on the list. But surely “facilities” on this scale to be deposited in this are where the local lanes are all single track and
where there is only slightly wider main road, where there is practically no local unemployment, \yhich
would mean that all the staff would have to come from outside the area by car, since there is no appropriate public transport, are just a mockery of all that an area of outstanding natural beauty is supposed to be. CPRE is disappointed and sur
prised that Lancashire County Council (with Blackpool) allegedly leads the consortium for the propos al, and that Ribble Valley Borough Council is included with the local parish councils as being in favour of the development. CPRE believes that the supposed guardians of the Forest of Rowland ANOB may also be in favour. The cost of the devel opment gives a clear indication of its size and unsuitability for the Gis burn Forest. In total it is estimated that it Mil cost £2.2million of which some £690,000 will come from pri vate sources. I t looks as though someone is pretty sure that they can make substantial financial gains out of an area which deserves to be left alone rather than suffer an avowedly upmarket retail and commercial development. There is much more in the docu
ment that we have received, but this letter already exceeds your preferred length. The time to object will come when the plans are submitted to Ribble Valley and the County Council. The trouble is that they are the very people who support this development. When, in our local councils one of the members has a personal interest he declares it and takes no part in the decision. Sadly there is no similar provision tor such integrity on the part of the whole planning bodies where these propos als will be decided.
DAVID KING, Chairman, Ribble Valley District Group and Lancashire Branch CPRE, Carr’s Croft, Rimington Copy to Lancashire County Council Ribble Valley Borough Council Nigel Evans M P
This facility will
benefit no one ALONG with the vast majority of residents and visitors to the Bow- land area, I am horrified at the plan to build a large visitor centre near to Stocks Reservoir. It would provide unwanted com petition to existing tourism busi
nesses and be of no benefit to the local community. ■
Surveys have shown that most
visitors appreciate the natural beau ty of the area and do not wish to see any changes, I have been told that the ofificial target figure is 100,000 visitors a year (say about 25,000 cars!). This would inevitably change the character of the area and cause pollution, traffic congestion and great environmental damage. The facilities proposed on the new
site can all be provided by existing enterprises in the area. We owe it to our own and future generations to preserve the true rural character of the area and make it clear that the imposition of an up-market holiday camp is quite unacceptable.
ALLAN HEYES, Beck House, Tosside
Poor thanks to a
remarkable man REGARDING the article on Keith Lord’s retirement from Clitheroe Football Club, we have known Keith for over 35 years and in all that time, he has never missed a match (home or away) except for holidays, illness arid the weddings of his two sons. Keith has dedicated his life to
Shawbridge doing untold tasks including laundering the kit, (which until recently his wife Peggy did at home in the family washing machine), painting, cleaning, fund raising, besides all the other posi tions you mentioned in your article and all this for no pay. He has never received any remu
neration for his efforts, so to read in the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times that his position as “groundsman” was going to be a paid position in the future must be like a kick in the teeth for him. We were also dismayed to hear
that after more than 50 years of service, Keith was rewarded with a bottle of brandy. Could the com mittee not have had something engraved with his name and years of service to the club? Soihething he could look back on with pride in years to come and pass on to his sons and grandsons? Come on Clitheroe FC, get your
selves together and give this selfless supporter the recognition and “send off” he richly deserves.
TERRENCE AND DOROTHY SUNTER, Millthorne Avenue, Clithcroc
Your Home
Write to: The Editor, Clithcrue Advertiser and Times, S King Street, Clitheroe BB72EW
vivien.ineath(
geastlancsnews.co.uk
Who will finance
my pension fund? I WOULD like to take issue with Coun. Richard Sherras over his let ter in last week’s Clitheroe Adver tiser and Times in which he seems to suggest that the reason for the increase to parking fees at Roefield is to pay for council employee pen sions. Who, may I ask, is going to pay
for the extra money I need to pay into my pension? I will now have less spare money to put into my pension due to the increase in park ing fees. He also states that next year they will have to find £190,000 and £260,000 the following year. Who is going to pay for this you may ask? Is Coun. Sherras propos ing to increase parking again over the next two years, or is he propos ing to increase council tax by a large amount? It seems more than co-incidence th a t this year’s increase was much lower than usual. Could this have been because there was an election looming? I think people can work that one out for themselves.
GRAHAM A. CUNLIFFE, Rimington
Charges may hurt
centre’s future WITHOUT wanting to be a regu lar on this page, I feel I have to respond to Coun. Hill’s letter last week regarding car parking at Roe- field Leisure and Ribblesdale Pool. I t was a most unsympathetic
response to the plight of the users of the pool or the sports centre and not once did he refer to the financial implications falling on the users, but chose instead to launch a scathing attack on the manager of Roefield, someone who over the past 10 years has worked hard to promote the facility with limited funds. ; I felt he came across as negative,
and critical, focusing on the-past rather than the future. To quote figures as he did is just
asking for further investigation into the actual funding regarding Roe field and Longridge Sports Centres. I feel the Ribble Valley should
subsidise Roefield and confine to find ways of making the leisure card scheme work, adding more money to the project, not with drawing what was existing funding, of £17,000.
This.can only make the situation worse for Roefield and the users causing rises in charges to make up for the shortfall. Increased charges would question
the future of Roefield, leaving a large area of the Ribble Valley without a facility for sport, espe cially for young people and those not able to afford the other health clubs in the area in a time when we are supposed to be promoting a healthy, fitter lifestyle. The suggestion of using the rela
tively small staff parking area for a drop-off point was totally ludi crous. Had he any concept of the amount of parents dropping off and collecting at certain times he would see quite clearly what a haz ard it would be as this area is too small to turn round, has a narrow
entrance and cars have to reverse back into a busy main road, some thing that has been stopped for health and safety reasons. Regarding the comments on
parking at Blackburn and Burnley to use sports facilities, most of those that provide comparable facilities to Roefield and Ribbles dale Pool are situated on the edge of town and have free car parks, and the Thompson Centre in Burn ley operates a refund policy on its car park. These toivns have regular public transport services. The users of Roefield Leisure and
Ribblesdale Pool are still extremely angry about the ivithdrawal of the refund facility arid wdll not let this matter drop. We have had a great response to
the petition already, with the sup-' port of a nuiriber of councillors and many retailers in town who have been willing to make the petition available to people who ivish to help support a reversal of this decision. Apart from Roefield Leisure
Centre, the petition can be found at the following: Harrison and Kerr, butchers; the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times office; Seasons House of Fashion; DJP Domestics; The Emporium; the Waddington Arms, Sainsbury’s and Hargreaves Cycles and Electrical. I can only presume that those
members on the committee that took this decision were not fully aware of the facts or implications to the users of the pool and leisure facilities at the time and ask them to review the situation.
RUTH HARGREAVES. Not everyone can
walk to exercise I AM \vriting in response to several letters in last week’s paper that seem to have anomilies. Mr Hill stated that all the whole
council endorsed the decision. That’s funny, because I know mine didn't! Mr Hill also stated that the area
in front of Roefield, which is used by their staff, should be a drop-off point for children. I remember when it was and it was far too dangerous. Access is narrow, Lvith a sharp bend and no room to turn mthout revers ing. Every driver has probably had their car scraped at some time, at least once, by someone reversing due to the driver not being able to see all four comers of their car - or maybe they have done so themselves. Cars can take that sort of knock, at finan cial cost, but children are far more
vulnerable. Ms Waddington suggests every
one should walk there and stop com plaining. From her address, I can see she lives ivithin a mile of the swim ming baths and from the annoyance in her letter she is obviously able to walk distances of that length and beyond. What she has not realised are the difficulties and/or impossi-. bilitios her suggestion would cause many users of the swimming baths
and Roefield:-. I, for one, have developed mobili
ty problems and it is on medical grounds that I swim three times a week and I am hoping it will stave off the day when I ivill need a “dis- ability'”parking ticket. Today, I parked near St Paul's
Editorial e-niuil;
and walked to the baths without any problems. However the walk back was another story - the weight of my wet costume and soggy towel in my bag was upsetting my balance and caused me further pain. When I was younger I was able to
walk miles and enjoyed doing so. Now I cannot and have to swim instead. Many of the regular swim mers are swimming on medical advice and the “Fitness for Life” concession does not mean they are entitled to it for life - only a short period. The swimming baths, tennis courts and gym don’t just serve the people of Clitheroe, but the whole area of the Ribble Valley, with peo ple from outside the borough using them too. Are they expected to walk that distance - and with children in tow ? No one has mentioned that the
cost of swimming has gone up too. No one has mentioned that most
of the activities take an hour or more (including parking, queueing, changing, the activity, showering, changing and returning to the car park). Indeed, the tennis court is hired for the hour, with tennis les sons taking an hour - and some les-- sons at Roefield are for more than an hour, so the cost of parking, without risking a ticket, is 70p. No one has mentioned that par
ents dropping off and collecting chil dren will have to pay twice. Accord ing to a council worker, if they leave the car park in between, their ticket is invalid! I expect we will see several drivers, in their cars, waiting on the road, facing the towm. No one has mentioned that for
those people who have bought a longrterm car park season ticket, they are now unable to use it there because it is now a short-term car park! (Workers at the council office have the benefit of a using a long term car park season ticket - and a ' very short walk tool). On these last three issues, some
thing needs to be done to prevent losing revenue for the council due to the short sighted decisions. My suggestions are:- O Reinstate the ref und - retaining
20p instead of lOp per ticket for both 35p and 70p tickets
, 0 Reinstate the “long tei-m” sta
tus - and for the whole year not just the summer 0 Allow parents dropping off and
collecting their children to return within the two hour period 1 believe that these three sugges
tions will maintain the number of people using the facilities and encourage drivers to use the car park, rather than use the Ediford Road to park, which will increase that income too.-
CONCERNED SWIMMER ' O More letters on this issue and
: : V > others liiivc bceii held over
• The Editor welcomes letters on any subject, but correspondents are reminded that contributions may be edited or condensed, must not exceed 3.10 words and should reach us by noon on Tuesday. Letters with nums de plume are only accepted for publi cation if tlie editor aqrees that there is a valid reason for the writer’s identity to be witbheld. These letters must, however, include the writer’s name and full postal address.
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