Readers' Letters: 'Disgusting' for council to recommend approving Harrogate Spring Water expansion plans

Readers’ Letters is a free weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

I have just read the sad news that North Yorkshire Council has recommended to approve the construction of a new plastic bottling plant at Harlow Hill in the Pinewoods.

Disgusting on so many fronts. We should be moving away from plastic bottles, bottled water and certainly not at the cost of losing valuable woodland — essential for this planet’s long-term future.

I was heartened to read there could be a six-month moratorium before the axe falls.

My husband and I were some of the first to buy shares in the Longland Common project. This has prevented the land between Starbeck and Knaresborough being sold to housebuilders.

As a result the Longland Common/Knaresborough Forest project was born. It is now saved for the future enjoyment of the community in perpetuity.

This a wonderful example of how community can come together and defeat the housebuilders and big businesses in order to prevent the destruction of our environment for their personal gain.

I’m sure thousands of us would be happy to become shareholders in such a scheme. 

The last thing we want are more plastic bottles and more heavy lorries trundling along our crowded streets.

Anne Boodt, Harrogate

Library toilet concerns in Harrogate

Harrogate Borough Council not existing in proper form has consequences. One of those is public health issues which may arise. As a regular Harrogate Library user I have noted the regularity with which the mens' wash basin in the public loos of the library gardens is broken.

While I do not do a number two in these loos, I note there are plenty who do. I have reported this issue once to Library staff but it is not so much their affair. They have their own internal loos.

I note the problem was fixed but then promptly broke again. If there is no hand washing facility maintained in public loos then it must be assumed, as use of these facilities continues, men will after bowel movements exit without hand washing.

It is very basic public health practice to hand wash after number two. This is because of the huge difference between pee and defecation in both bacteriological and virological natures. Yet it appears the current structure of local government is unable to maintain as functioning this simple priority.

Only the idiot would think handwashing after defecation unimportant. We cannot always force idiots who wilfully avoid hand washing to be more dutiful. However why do we now pay tax to a distant local government structure that makes idiots out of all of us by failing to ensure essential public health standards?

Donald Fraser, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

If you enjoyed reading this article then please subscribe to read all our content. Subscription costs £4.99 a month or £49.99 if you pay annually.

That works out at less than a pound a week. You will also enjoy exclusive subscriber discounts. Click here to subscribe.