Letter: The Stray - Lessons in listening

There’s no “may” about it, councillor; many of us most certainly are worried about this. If you wish to understand why, again I say; have a look at the state of the rutted and balded stretch along Oatlands Drive. Though this is the worst example, there are others.

They have been like this for years thanks to persistent, anti-social parking and the persistent failure of HBC to do anything about it.

If this can happen under the present restrictive rules, can you see why any proposed easing of them is a cause for great concern?

We are told that “We will listen to the public”. The public have been subjected to “listening” Westminster’s decades of empty deceits on our ramshackle railway.

A few short years back, NYCC belatedly “listened” then steamrollered ahead with the vandalising of 800 Victorian lamp posts.

“Listening” is not merely registering sounds; it requires proper respect for and response to, whatever is being said.

A lesson from the life of the late Sir Ken Morrison would not go amiss.

We are determining not only the future of the Stray, but of Harrogate and its unique character.

This must not be sacrificed on the altar of short term political expediency.

Once again; could we please have the what, where, when and by whom, expressed in plain English with no wriggle-room for lawyers, either now or in the future?

Malcolm Wright

Harrogate