Stray Views is a 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.

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Station Gateway is best thing to happen to Harrogate for years

The Station Gateway plans are the first glimmer of hope I have felt in my seven years of living in Harrogate town (aka 'my car's bigger than your car' Town).

A glimmer of hope that we just might have a lovely, friendly, safe, human, caring, bustling, fun town buried somewhere here. Buried beneath the surging, charging, horrific madness that is currently 'our town'.

We have dual carriageways with parking down both sides. The humans lurk, unwanted, forgotten, ignored, often frightened, on a little strip of tarmac potentially a mere few metres from where they want to be. As for cycling. You'd have to be mad.

Nowhere have I seen a town so well-suited to walking, running, cycling and generally playing out, that instead chooses to destroy itself in deference to its rich, entitled, car-addicted populous.

The Station Gateway is just the start...

Ruth, Walker, runner, cyclist, mother and musician of Harrogate

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Ripon needs a First World War walking tour

I read with interest your article about the installation of the memorial at Hell Wath nature reserve, which was the site of the WW1 army camp in Ripon.

I was born and grew up in Ripon and have spent a lot of my adult life there, but I had to ask a fellow walker for help to point me in the right direction to find it when we went to have a look at it. It would have been far easier if you had included directions on how to find it in your article.

It would also have been useful to have had more information there about the camp at Hellwath and its significance to WW1 history.

A walking route pointing out points of interest would be both interesting and educational to all age groups. Perhaps some of those metal figures could be placed in key areas of interest. Considering the great lose of life in WW1, it would be a fitting tribute to those that served and were billeted there. Most families were touched in some way by the war at the time, mine included.

Geoff Fletcher, North Stainley

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Read more:

• Stray Views: Scrap the Station Gateway in its current form


• Harrogate businesses consider legal challenge to Station Gateway


• Stray Views: Station Gateway ‘a waste of money’

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Time to deal with these dangerous gases

It's been common practice for some time now to vent to the surface gases from land that has previously been a landfill site.

The gas that is emitted is typically methane (CH4), which we know to be significantly more dangerous to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2). Some studies rate it as 100 times more powerful a climate change gas.

There are sites in Harrogate that currently vent this gas to the atmosphere: Stonefall Park and parts of the Great Yorkshire Showground, amongst others.

Has the time come to deal with this harmful gas in a more environmentally friendly way?

Robert Newton, Pannal

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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.