'Council's words do not match reality on bus services'

North Yorkshire Council is very good at rhetoric and memorable sound-bites but their words do not match the reality.

In the very week that they used the slogan “use them or lose them” in regard to new bus services, NYC implemented draconian cuts on the Northallerton town bus service. NYC have reduced it from five round trips to three on Mondays to Fridays and from six to four on Saturdays on the pretext of serving a new development.

The new part of the route takes 12 minutes, three times a day, making 36 minutes in total. The time of the lost journeys is 96 minutes.

Anybody can see that four round trips could have been provided in the time available.

Furthermore, suggestions were made to NYC about how the new development could be served whilst leaving the town service intact.

As is usual with NYC, the suggestions were ignored.

NYC seem incapable of understanding that improving bus services will draw people away from private cars and thus reduce congestion, pollution and carbon emissions thereby making our town a more pleasant place to live, work and shop.

The new timetable is virtually useless for most residents, meaning patronage will drop.

If Northallerton was provided with a bus service that met the needs of residents, patronage would rise.

It seems that NYC is setting up bus services to fail thus giving it the excuse to cut them.

The silence of local politicians on this issue is deafening.

Ian Ring, resident on the new North Northallerton development.

Fast internet

I AM a resident of Killerby which is part of the Piercebridge telephone exchange area, and lies in the Heighington ward of Darlington.

We have been promised high speed broadband for many years by BT, which has never materialised.

However Openreach have now appeared on the scene, and they have written to all households to say government funding is available and that they require a pledge (no details provided) to use the service.

A meeting was arranged by them for May 14, which was attended by our ward councillor acting on behalf of residents served by the Piercebridge exchange, and as I was unable to attend this meeting asked in an email, copied to Openreach, that he raise a number of issues that were relevant to their proposals.

He agreed that these were pertinent to the meeting and he would put them to Openreach and let me know the outcome.

Despite reminders I have not received a reply, and consider all householders affected should be mindful of the main pitfalls before entering into a binding agreement.

A summary of these are therefore listed below: 1. What guarantees will the government impose to ensure Openreach provide the new broadband infrastructure on time (within 12 months as stated in the letter) and at reasonable cost to the taxpayer.(Openreach will get some £1.3m to replace overhead lines and provide the green boxes) 2. What will happen to those people who do not subscribe, but may wish to install broadband in the future?

3. Noted that a key condition of voucher funding is that all who pledge to support the scheme must enter into a broadband contract (no terms indicated) 4. Many people obtain a broadband service using alternative means for example satellite, dongles etc, so they will need convincing that the Openreach proposals are cheaper and better (whatever they may be).

Briefly, the proposal from Openreach was that a Government grant was available of up to £4,500 per household, and they needed a minimum of 293 households to pledge and confirm their acceptance.

Openreach say, that for those who sign up to a voucher (pledge) they will request a voucher from the government who will send an email to those who have signed up to confirm the pledge details.

When Openreach get enough people to pledge and validate their vouchers they will start work. This seems to me that they expect people to sign up without knowing what these details are.

I seem to recall that BT were heavily fined recently for putting their customers in a similar position and not setting out their terms clearly, and it seems Openreach are heading the same way.

WH Pigott, Darlington.

Tactical vote

AS anyone who lives here in the Richmond and Northallerton constituency knows, Labour don’t have a hope winning here in Rishi Sunak’s constituency.

The national polls are just that, national projections based on the 2019 results with a swing applied to reflect what happening at a macro level.

Any idea that Labour are within touching distance of toppling Rishi Sunak is total nonsense. A more accurate read can be garnered from looking at the pattern of voting in the last North Yorkshire Council elections, the most recent hard data available that is separated out by constituency.

A glance there shows clearly that Labour trailed way back in third place with just 2,786 votes.

It was the Liberal Democrats, with double the support that Labour mustered, who were the runaway challengers to the Conservatives here.

Indeed, Labour failed to win even a single councillor in the entire constituency.

If data isn’t your thing, then maybe consider the only evidence that really matters, which is what people are saying right now on the doorsteps.

Pick any street in the patch and talk to people there.

You’ll hear loud and clear that, while Mr Sunak’s star is clearly on the wane there is most definitely no love for Labour either.

People want change and both the two larger parties are being dismissed as just more of the same old Punch and Judy show.

Some Tory hardliners are shifting towards Reform.

However, the majority are moderate, lifelong Conservatives who would never vote Labour but are considering the Lib Dems this time round.

Labour can’t win here but they could stop the Lib Dems winning.

And that would be a real opportunity missed for our area.

Gerald Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.

Family and politics

I WAS 16 when my father sold the first parcel of land in 1958 to Wimpey’s and the first houses were built on The Wheatlands and Roseberry Crescent.

I lived with my brother and parents in Tilesheds Farm, in the cul-de-sac now known as Farm Garth.

We had 25 cows milked by the new medium, electric Alfa Laval milking machines.

We employed a dairyman who had come down from Bransdale who taught me how to milk cows by hand and whose accent was a treat to my ears.

When I had completed my O-levels (GCSE) and three half decent A-levels in Guisborough, I applied for university places at Belfast, Aberdeen and West Wales.

The reason I applied to distant university courses was because I realised that my interest in left wing politics did not fit alongside my father’s politics or indeed my brother’s.

I remember the time, when I was 17 and I told my father that I would be voting Labour (Harold Wilson).

It was clear that I would need to make a future for myself in pastures new. The rest is history.

I gained a decent degree in French and took up teaching in Warwickshire and came home once a fortnight to see my mother and milk cows.

My father kept on selling land, acre by acre, until there were only 39 acres left of the 98 in 1958. He had kept selling until he died in 1967.

In May 1997 the Blair/Brown Government took over from the John Major soapbox debacle and Thatcher had been forgotten.

In Great Ayton these last few weeks and this week in particular it is beginning to feel very much like the 1997 period. Two weeks ago, the Great Ayton part of the Great Ayton and Stokesley Labour Branch, set up what we called Manifesto Corner, a little slice of the pavement close to the Ayton Fish and Chip shop.

We had a good group of willing workers, some supporters, some LP members, who have been engaging in conversation with local and visiting passers-by who wanted to share their lives with us.

There are many lovely stories to tell but I remember one where a person whose father way, back in the 1940s was a relief milkman and enjoyed making models for children. He made a model farm for me to play with in 1946. She said that she could never understand why I had changed my politics after I came from a Conservative background.

It is time that the constituency of Richmond and Northallerton should be released from the burden of Conservative history.

This is the 21st Century that we live in. We do not wish to be shackled to the Johnson/Truss/Sunak legacy.

Robin Winn, Great Ayton.

Election protests

IN the coming election most people sick of Tory broken pledges and empty promises will at the same time absolutely dread the thought of five years of Labour in charge.

We are told that a vote for anyone but these two is a wasted one.

Normally because of our archaic voting system (perpetuated by the two main parties as it ensures they take turns in misgoverning the country) I might agree but this time things are different.

Barring a national disaster, war or similar, Labour will win by anything from a landslide to a comfortable majority.

It follows that if the undecided or unhappy vote for either they will in fact waste their vote and can have no complaints at the result.

The size of the majority matters not as Labour will be able to do whatever they want.

Win or lose his seat, the PM will be dumped by his party after the election.

Many will decide with some justification that neither party deserves their support so they won’t bother voting and believe this will show their disapproval.

Not so, it will just go down as a low turnout because of apathy.

Similarly a vote for “none of the above” will be marked as a spoiled paper. The only votes worth anything are those which can be seen as protest votes.

Imagine if all the votes for the smaller parties added up to more than the combined LabCon total, that would send a strong message.

Vote for who you think might do a better job of running (saving) our country, given the chance or vote for whichever policies you like the sound of.

Just don’t “not vote”.

Denis McAllister, Leyburn.

Rishi Sunak

I CAN understand the desire by many to give the Conservatives a good kicking at the forthcoming election.

Judging by the letters printed in this paper there are plenty who desire to see Rishi Sunak humiliated by being the first sitting PM to lose his seat at a general election.

Has our MP really been such a poor constituency representative?

I believe he has been a good and generous one in the time and effort he has given to a majority of his constituents.

Many of you will have forgotten the good he did during the Covid crisis by his support for village halls, sports clubs and small business.

I cannot overestimate the benefits derived in Hudswell for the village hall, community pub and local tourist establishments.

In closing I would suggest that voters be very careful what they wish for because a “supermajority” for Labour would not be good for democracy.

Paul Chapman, Hudswell, Richmond.

Conservative scandals SINCE 2019, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak have just lurched this country into gutter politics. Every week now without fail the Tory party find themselves defending the sleaze within their ranks.

Mr Sunak when he became Prime Minister claimed he was going to sort out this issue within his party, sadly this has not been the case. The country has been damaged by their behaviour and it is now time he and all his remaining Cabinet (as a number are already jumping ship) were dismissed once and for all from the House of Commons.

The country cannot and must not endure another five years of this deceitful behaviour.

I M Pope, Thirsk.

Looking to the future

WITH only a week to the General Election, I can’t work out whether the lack of marketing newsletters from the Conservatives smack of arrogance or apathy?

I’m assuming that Rishi Sunak’s team merely assume the Richmond and Northallerton constituency will remain Blue, so why make the effort?

So, with some crystal ball gazing, I see Mr Sunak returned as MP, with a greatly reduced majority.

But with his party taking a drubbing at the polls, he’ll hang around for three months as leader of the Opposition before resigning to jump on the affluent speakers circuit.

At the subsequent by-election a protest vote will see Count Binface elected!

Neil Harrison, Stokesley.