Letters: Dales lanes

Organised groups such as the Trail Riders Fellowship and four-wheel drive clubs have no time for people who ride off the roads or ride in very large groups. We aim to educate our members to respect other users of the countryside. A ban on riding on green lanes will only affect the law-abiding groups, not the cowboys.

We are often accused of creating damage to the green roads but a government survey "Making the best of Byways" said that with rare exceptions this was not the case. Indeed it is accepted that the modern four-wheel drive tractor with its massive power and weight can cause some damage.

We are also constantly told how many hundreds of thousands of pounds is spent by the National Park on repairing footpaths, even to the extent of hiring helicopters to carry stone up the hills. For some reason we do not see this used as a reason to ban the ramblers, who will soon have the right to roam as they please.

Finally, I was a bit surprised to see Martin Vallance, owner of the shooting rights on Arkleside Moor, complaining that vehicles in the countryside "cause the loss of peace and tranquility which is one of the great blessings of the dales".

Is he a new breed of sportsman who walks to his shoot, so has no need for new and intrusive private roads, and then kills the wildlife with a silenced gun?

The countryside is big enough for us all to enjoy. This country has too many people determined to stop people doing anything they don't do themselves.

DAVID LONEY

Secretary, Trail Riders Fellowship North Region,

Morley,

Leeds.

Lost businesses

Sir, - I am pleased to learn, (D&S Apr 26), that Hambleton District Council is prepared to offer business rate relief to village pubs who offer a sub-post office service from their premises. But why has it taken so long?

The Uniform Business Rate came into being in 1989 and was enacted by the Finance Bill 1998. Within that bill, was a provision that rating authorities were empowered to remit all or part of business rate liability and 75pc of any such relief would be returned from central government.

Between 1991 and 1996 I made two applications for ancilliary relief and was refused both times.

I am reliably informed that Hambleton District Council did not provide any business in its area with any business rate relief until it and all the UK rating authorities were instructed to do so, by the Labour Government.

I have to express gratitude to Hambleton District Council which in some cases offered 100pc business rate relief as I am a beneficiary of these measures. But there are, or were, other deserving cases who, if they had received assistance in the years from 1989 to date, might still be trading. Included in this immediate district are the shops at Kirklington, Carthorpe, Snape, Well, Londonderry, Aiskew etc, and the pub at Well.

ALAN BENN

Burneston Village Stores

Bedale.

Poor boast

Sir, - You report "Labour group prepares for victory" (D&S Apr 26) Coun David Walsh boasting that his group has achieved a record by not increasing the council tax for two years.

He must have forgotten that prior to that his group inflicted on our community another record, the second highest council tax in England. For that they were rewarded by the voters giving them, in his own words, "a good kicking".

Now they have the arrogance to think that the people do not remember the high cost of poor services. What is there to see for that high cost? A pleasant looking, well maintained borough? High quality social services? Effective debt collection?

The list of mismanagement is endless and the Labour ruling group will find endless excuses and others to blame, but the residents will not be fooled by the bluster and the illusion of new-found fiscal competence.

These are the very same Labour councillors that brought the borough to the dreadful state that it is in, and now they expect the voters to trust them.

Coun VALERIE HALTON

Belmangate,

Guisborough.

Left out in Loftus

Sir, - With reference to the report on the front page last week regarding the shop front in Guisborough (D&S, Apr26), I was interested in the comments made by Coun David Walsh.

I only wish he would devote the same amount of time and thought to the main thoroughfare of Loftus, where the number of derelict shops in a row on Zetland Road is an absolute eyesore and spoils any amount of care and attention which has been given to the Market Place.

As the elected member for Loftus, I think he should be devoting his time and effort to the place that elected him and do something to improve our town.

The people of Loftus will remember this next year when the elections come round again. The old argument that money was spent by the council on Loftus Bank "won't wash" as that was a repair not an improvement.

CAROL CLIFFORD

Cromwell Avenue,

Loftus.

The rightful place

Sir, - Ms Slater complains (D&S, Apr 26) that I grumbled that nobody has seen fit to replace the memorial plaque for Northallerton Grammar School's war dead from 1939-1945.

My dictionary describes "replace" as "put back in place". Not inside where anybody requiring to view a public war memorial is asked to telephone first.

Obviously, the ideal place for a plaque describing why the gates are there is away from the gates ... how silly of me.

Perhaps a notice could be placed near the gates telling passers-by how they can view the plaque which should be where the notice is?

A M RONTREE

St James Drive,

Northallerton

To the mindless

Sir, - I would like to offer my sincere thanks to those mindless hooligans who vandalised my property on the night of April 27.

There is a long history of this type of occurrence in the area and most people put it down to late night drinking in the clubs in Northallerton.

I hope that parents in the South Vale area of the town take notice of this and take the appropriate action to stop this type of behaviour.

In conclusion, this is the last thing I needed to happen at the present time, in view of the extreme personal pressures I am under due to a recent family bereavement.

W I WILLIAMSON

Mill Hill Lane,

Northallerton