Usually at this time in my Dales photo blog I’ll offer a ‘best of’ selection from throughout the year. Instead, for the next three weeks I’ll be presenting a different theme using photos taken during 2016. No prizes for guessing this week’s Dales theme…
Waste of space
This week I received a letter from our MP, Julian Smith, in response to a letter I’d sent regarding the proposed closure of Horton-in-Ribblesdale school. Of course, he didn’t give any personal opinions or his own thoughts on the closure but he did include a response he had received from North Yorkshire County Council. There was nothing more in the tangled reply than I hadn’t already read elsewhere, but I was interested in the paragraph reproduced above. The lack of spaces between some of the words has me wondering if this is part of the cutbacks now facing local government. I imagined the following memo being distributed: ‘Management is concerned about the number of spaces being used in correspondence and therefore from today all letters, memos, emails, blogs, Tweets and Facebook posts must contain at least 10 per cent fewer spaces. Thiswillnotonly savetimeand wearandtear oncomputerkeyboards butwillalsosave paper. However, the saving of man hours means that we will have to let one of you go, so wearelooking forsomeone totake voluntaryredundancy.’ The management.
Train of thought
I’m a great fan of the Woodland Trust and once again this year I’ll not be sending out Christmas cards (bah humbug) but will make a small donation to the trust to help with saving trees. I was dismayed to discover a while back that the trust agreed in principal to the building of the HS2 railway – in my opinion it is an expensive vanity project which will churn up the countryside, destroy farms, homes and ancient woodland, increase pollution, drain rescources and cost you and me billions of pounds just so those who can afford it will get to London half an hour quicker. Far less money would be needed to improve the existing network.
However, at least the Woodland Trust is putting up a fight against some of the HS2 proposals – you can read more about on the link below. Their main concerns are: 1. HS2 Ltd has failed to identify ancient woodland before selecting route options for Phase 1; 2. The compensation proposed for loss of ancient woodland is woefully inadequate; 3 Phase 1 could set a precedent for future infrastructure project, including subsequent phases of HS2.
Ancient woodlands and the ecosystems created around them are irreplaceable – think of it as Brimham Rocks … would you agree to destroying this ancient landscape to run a railway line through it?
http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blogs/woodland-trust/2016/11/hs2-bill-lords/?utm_campaign=1629669_9315_dec_campaigning_enews_20161207&utm_medium=email&utm_source=woodlandtrust&utm_content=B16EMA008_S4&dm_i=2D76,YXGL,4VVIR1,2QT4O,1
Friends asked if I’d send them some photos of Langcliffe as a reminder of a recent visit to the dales. Instead, I put together a little calendar for them and had a couple printed by one of those quick-print internet companies. One of the calendars is on show in St John’s church so villagers can take a look should they ever need reminding about where they live!
Yes, this week’s theme was cows.