Letters October 4th
Just refrain from using this junction I HAVE read with interest the recent contributions on this subject (junction with Pendle Road and the A59) as we regularly use this junction and find it difficult to understand how anyone can have difficulty with it.
There is a central reservation, which means you only need to concentrate on traffic coming one way at once, and there are clear fields of view in all directions.
The A59 is a major cross-country route and does not deserve to be littered with roundabouts or any other obstructions and it is possible a roundabout would create additional problems not currently foreseen.
Anyone who feels uncomfortable with this junction has other options to use the roundabout at the golf club even if heading for Pendleton or Sabden from Clitheroe.
The next junction east at the end of the link road ought to generate more comment with the number of heavy vehicles which use it to access the A59, but clearly there must be a higher percentage of professional drivers using that junction.
This brings us to the crux of the problem, which is that most of the incidents seem to be caused by people who are unable to judge speed and distance and who represent a tiny percentage of the driving population.
These people should simply refrain from using this junction.
BRIAN TILLOTSON by e-mail
Pity county doesn't share these views
A SUPERB letter by Madeline Adey in the Clitheroe Advertiser (September 27th) gives a more correct view about the problems caused at the A59 junction with Pendle Road.
It is a shame these views are not shared with the county council.
Earlier this year, I attended one of the Lancashire County Council forums. I cannot remember its exact name, but it travels the area discussing issues, one of which was this very topic. I was left in disarray to hear the only issue is one of speed. All problems were simply down to drivers on the A59 going too fast and a roundabout would not be placed as it would cost 500,000.
This is a very narrow minded view by the county council. Now one person is dead and a young mother has to live with that for the rest of her life. Two families have suffered.
As a regular traveller through that junction, let me agree with Madeline Adey and say I too have seen people ignore the no right turn into Pendle Road.
I have also seen people turn off as if going to Sabden then swing round to use the junction "correctly". I have also seen several cars balanced in the centre island, but the biggest problem of all is cars pulling out at the last minute, either to get to Sabden or to travel towards Whalley.
This is the main cause of the problem. This has been the cause of most of the accidents, this has ended in a fatality.
What conclusion did the county council come to regarding the junction?
They said there would be flashing matrix-style lights on either side asking motorists to slow to 50 m.p.h. This is the most pathetic answer I could imagine and it still has not even been done.
How many more times are we to see reports of serious injury or death? How many accidents can you fit into 500,000?
Lancashire County Council, the people of the Ribble Valley challenge you: Build us a roundabout or have blood on your hands.
TOM FLANAGAN Manor Road, Whalley. by e-mail
No one bothers about saving lives
WITH regards to past correspondence regarding the "death" junction of the A59/Pendle Road.
It would appear that really no one gives a damn about how many people are killed at this junction.
We have read that even our MP Nigel Evans has, it appears, drawn a blank in his endeavours to make this junction safe, which on my past dealings with the local government bodies, comes as no surpirse.
When I was heavily involved in the campaign to obtain a puffin pedestrian crossing at the Ribble Valley Borough Council sports complex at Edisford I was shocked at the lack of understanding on matters in the Ribble Valley by the people, who it seems have nothing better to do than shuffle paper work around.
The excuses issued by Lancashire County Council and highways departments were unreal, even the RVBC joined in the fun of passing the buck.
When I inquired about obtaining a safe passage acoss the road at Edisford, I was confronted with a desire by all (LCC and RVBC) to have no dealings with it whatsoever.
I was told by LCC officials that to be put on their list for possible financial aid for a crossing, there would have to be a least six deaths at that section of road (that was to be considered to be put on the list).
So going off that, we have still got to have another four deaths before it will go on the list of consideration for action.
In the meantime, we the Ribble Valley residents, will still pay into the bottomless coffers of local government some 100m. of taxes every year (taxes, council charges, road taxes) and even hear that is not enough to fund a roundabout.
It might be a good idea if we in the Ribble Valley push for a representation to the LCC, a person who will be able to negotiate between the tax payers and local government on matters like the above mentioned "death" junction.
At the end of the day it appears no one is interested in saving lives.
RON LOEBELL, Edisford Road, Clitheroe.
Points clarified – event a success
CAN we, as joint organisers of the Full Phat Event, clarify one or two points raised in your last-but-one edition where a number of factual errors where reported?
Our event was planned from January and was not a last-minute poorly devised idea.
The sole reason for the late application for a new licence was the postponement of the date due to weather and the subsequent decision to increase the licence capacity due to interest already shown.
The Licensing Act 2003 clearly states that 28 days notice be given and this was indeed the case, should there be issues with this then the only option would be to make representations to the Licensing Authority to bring about an amendment to the Act of Parliament that is currently in force.
We believe this year's Beatherder Festival was granted a license on the Friday they were to open, was this also reported with such vigour?
A further point is our tickets were refundable and this was clearly stated on the ticket, not as reported.
Due to the close-knit nature of our ticket outlets and vendors, we could inform people we were still awaiting our license and tickets were fully refundable.
The reaction of a good number of people who had purchased tickets was to offer the ticket cost as a donation regardless, whether the event went ahead or not.
The outcome of Full Phat and during the subsequent dissection of the event with the council and police, it was unanimously agreed that the event was a resounding success and words used to describe the way in which the event staff operated and visitors conducted themselves can be summarised as excellent.
With not one complaint received by the council or police, we can only assume we complied, remained considerate and indeed held a safe event.
A special mention should be made to the Ribble Valley Event Safety and Advisory Group for their help and guidance and a particular thank you be made to the police for the excellent way in which they policed the event and at no additional cost to the taxpayer, without the help of these two bodies we could not have achieved our goal.
Finally, we would like to say thank you to all those who made this event possible with their help in kind and their donations. With the last of the money now coming in, we hope to have raised somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 for the Air Ambulances, which will hopefully be presented next week, the hard work and effort that went into staging this event has certainly been worth it.
IAN O'RILEY and EMMA ROBINSON by e-mail
Children should not be armed
IS it right that primary school children can be legally armed?
Following a recent Freedom of Information request, Devon and Cornwall police admitted granting a shotgun certificate to a nine-year-old. Doubtless other police forces have done likewise.
A youngster has to wait until 16 to marry, 17 to drive a car and 18 to vote, but at nine can be armed. The shooting brigade is a vociferous lobby, forever claiming their "right" to do whatever to our wildlife; doubtless they exert extreme pressue to allow their young children to use shotguns to kill birds and animals.
The age of criminal responsibility is 10; low compared to other countries. Why 10? Because below that age children are judged not to be responsible for their actions, yet Devon and Cornwall police see fit to arm them with shotguns. Perhaps at times some police forget their duty to safeguard society as a whole.
Kids will be kids, but kids with guns can kill like men. It is not the gun that kills, but the person who pulls the trigger. As such, society must think long and hard about who is armed, not criminals, not the insane and surely not the immature?
Across the world children are press-ganged to fight and die clutching AK47s precisely because they lack adult emotions. They are often fearless and with encouragement can kill without pity. Our children have the good fortune to be spared such horrors, so why not teach them to respect life rather than take it just for fun?
The age when children can have a shotgun certificate should be raised, certainly to the age of criminal responsibility and ideally to, say, the age for driving. At present a child of any age can be given a shotgun certificate if the police so decide, but commonsense tells us it is courting disaster to arm children.
M.J. HUSKISSON, Animal Welfare Information Service, P.O. Box 8,
Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 OJL.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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