Leader highlights why Kirklees is being failed
NOT sure if Lidl were at the same planning meeting I attended last December. If they were they certainly didn’t hear things as I did. I personally attended as I live in the area and really want one of these discount supermarkets here.
The council stated that they were hearing both the Aldi and Lidl applications at the same time as they were both in the same area and they weren’t sure there wold be enough demand for two stores of the same nature to be viable together.
The case for an Aldi at Oakes Mills seemed pretty straightforward with no major objections. The Lidl application threw up more problems.
The first was that this area had been highlighted for housing. Lidl state that they could not make a profit building housing here. Not surprised. Their experience is in stores not housing.
Maybe a builder could make something of the site? Several objections were raised as to the site. It would generate more traffic on a busy road next to a busy junction. It was near to a large school and an already busy Salendine Centre which has quite a few retail offers including supermarket, pharmacy, florists, estate agent and cafe.
The planning committee decided to accept the Aldi plan and reject the Lidl one. Lidl have stated they would be re-applying with some changes to their plan. They can’t change the site they have which is where all the objections arise. They originally considered the Oakes Mills site and decided against, which is where Aldi decided to come in. If they had stuck to their first thoughts all may have been well. I really want one of these discount supermarkets here. The sooner Aldi crack on and demolish Oakes Mills... a shadow on my house for the 30 years I’ve lived here, the better.
I’m not sure what planet Lidl are on. I regularly shop at the Outcote Bank store but I can’t see how they can build a store locally on the site they want.
Bill Kenwright, theatrical impresario, 75; Tom Watson, golfer, 71; Damon Wayans, actor, 60; Noah Taylor, actor, 51; Mark Ronson, music producer, 45; Beyonce Knowles, singer, (above) 39; Jonny Lomax, rugby league player, 30.
IN WEDNESDAY’S article in the
Clr Shabir Pandor repeatedly highlights why Kirklees Council is failing its constituents.
The man at the top still requires clarity of why some wards remain in tighter lockdown, and says that there is still confusion.
This sounds more like a “not in my backyard” response from someone who represents part of the affected area (Batley West).
Surely the leader of Kirklees Council knows how the infection rate figures are calculated and will have the figures to show what that rate is for the five wards, per 100,000 people in those wards.
It’s not rocket science to understand that the areas (five wards) with the highest rates per 100,000 need additional safety measures – but sometimes in life people at the heart of a problem don’t even accept there is a problem.
I’m ashamed of our years of empire
IT IS NOT entirely clear to me what R. J. Bray is trying to say in his muddled letter on history, though I do agree that ‘we should never try to expunge our history’ (Feedback,
August 31).
I suspect it is about the ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ episode with the BBC.
I am afraid that I would never sing that song and as a historian I am rather ashamed of our country’s past because people have still not faced up to what actually happened during the years of empire which are in recent memory.
A friend, now dead, was a Special Branch officer in the 1950s in Kenya at the time of Mau Mau. He unburdened himself to me and told me how they tortured and garrotted prisoners with piano wire.
The Government finally admitted liability ten years ago and paid out compensation.
A son of an MI6 officer informed me that his father invented a hook which was used for torture in Bahrain in the 1960s.
Again within living memory. But we soon forget.
Cornflakes struggle over utter twaddle
AS A LONGSTANDING
reader, I’ve read some right twaddle in the letters page, and have of course contributed plenty of my own in recent times, but R.J. Bray’s latest missive tops the lot.
I have to confess this caused me so much amusement, I had a bit of a struggle with my bowl of cornflakes this morning.