Letters: Another closure

On my recent visit I was amazed to hear that the only sports centre was to close. I watched the views expressed on television and heard Mr Blackie, the council leader, state that the sports centre was not being closed early, the date had just been brought forward! What hope have Richmond with a leader like that.

Now, although I am a pensioner, I still like to play sport. Could Mr Blackie tell us where there are any public tennis or badminton courts in Richmond that can be used in the daytime. Pensioners do not want to travel to outlying villages at night.

To my inexperienced eye Richmond already have the ideal site for a new sports centre which could be used for all ages. This is the Old Station, which would be right next door to the swimming pool and has plenty of parking. This is a lovely building but has just been sitting empty for nearly two years.

The country is urging everyone to keep fit and to this end Newmarket is taking this up. We have a leisure centre, which includes three badminton/tennis/five-a-side football courts and three squash courts. These are open to the public in the daytime and evening.

Outside there are two public tennis courts with floodlights for evening use. We have an old swimming pool but a new one is to be built next to the leisure centre.

So if Newmarket can do it, why not Richmond. We are also fortunate in our shopping facilities. We have a Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Netto and a Homebase. We also have a multi-storey car park, with three hours free parking, and this draws visitors. Newmarket is by no means perfect, but does cater for all ages.

I look forward to my next visit to Richmond, but do hope, by then, that nothing else has been closed.

MARGARET SADLER

Andrew Road,

Newmarket.

Coat of arms

Sir. - Following recent letters in the D&S Times I feel we need to explain certain facts which have appeared in writing.

The coat of arms, which currently hangs over the beautifully-restored Georgian court in Richmond Town Hall, was, in living memory, found hanging in the King's Head Hotel.

The court itself was moved to the Town Hall sometime after 1858 when the ecclesiastical court was closed in Trinity Church. The Georgian court is an amalgamation of pieces from different courts - an ecclesiastical court did not have a jury - and so a Jury box was added.

The coat of arms was restored in 1987/1988. The fact that it required further extensive work after only 15 years clearly indicates the effect of light damage.

This council has taken very seriously the advice given by the restorer who, despite Coun Blease's claims is an internationally-renowned expert.

We have also investigated different ways of protecting the board in situ but this has proved, because of the level of light exposure, to be impossible.

The decision to protect the town's heritage was not taken lightly but we are not prepared to let our very rich heritage fade away as suggested by others.

We have also, through the good offices of Coun Blacklock, received confirmation that the coat of arms currently in the Richmond Magistrates Court will be given to the town as a tangible witness to our recent loss. By installing these arms over the Georgian court we will maintain the links and the effect.

This council is strongly committed to administering the present, building the future and safeguarding the past.

Coun STUART PARSONS

Mayor of Richmond,

A wake-up call

Sir, - MP Andrew George's concern (D&S letters, Apr 16) about giant stores increasing their stranglehold on farmers and the environment should be a wake-up call to all. These giants are conglomerates which seem to operate in a loophole in monopoly laws.

So we see British press headlines about British firms threatening corner shops, but not a whimper about much bigger global conglomerates being open all hours. But who owns the British press?

Global conglomerates have budgets bigger than many countries and their influence over even the most powerful governments is worrying. So we see opposition to them being removed by national and local government by all manner of means.

Add to this the changes to a more US style of local government and we understand why maybe a strong Labour group is deafeningly silent, while the few quality and much-needed assets are stripped from their town to build a totally unnecessary out-of-town-size store right in the centre of struggling local shops.

Don't let's be like the professor of agriculture and law in the US bewailing the loss of hundreds of ordinary seed companies to five transgenetic giants.

Too late the horses (of the Apocalypse) are out and they headed to fertile grounds prepared by 1980s government.

It's been called a revolutionary decade. I think Churchill would have called it something else.

C DAVISON

Billingham.

Mr Brown's con

Sir, - Many thousands of your readers would have seen the 30,000 plus runners straining muscle and sinew in the London marathon last weekend.

It is estimated that 75pc of these runners do it for charity.

I wonder, though, whether your readers know that Gordon Brown uses this charitable event as a cash cow for the Treasury.

Each runner has to register by filling in a form stating that he or she is running for charity, and the treasury takes 17.5pc VAT for doing nothing.

Cancer, heart disease and other charities lose that money because of the greed of this government.

Please ask your readers to complain to their MP about this blatant theft.

WILLIAM McCANN

St Pauls Drive,

Brompton-on-Swale.

Costly project

Sir, - At devolution it was estimated the construction of a new Scottish Parliament building would cost between £10m and £40m.

April 1999 pre-construction work started ready for the construction work to start that summer. In April 2000 costs of the completed project were then estimated at £195m.

In June 2003 an independent inquiry produced a report with the final cost of the Parliament estimated at £373.9m.

Recent press reports are now quoting a figure of £430m.

Regional Government? Enough said.

G KANE

Brentwood,

Leyburn.

Filthy town

Sir, - At last someone else has seen how filthy Northallerton has become. The cuts between roads, which sometimes give access to the rear of people's homes, are so cluttered with litter and paper it is almost impossible to get through.

Surely there must be a reason to employ a road cleaner to clean some of the paper and litter away. The High Street is absolutely covered in chewing gum. The newspapers which are pushed under hedges is disgusting, and surely someone must be missing their daily paper.

Something should be done about it.

F W BENNETT

Oak Grove,

Northallerton.