IT is not in question that some form of shelters for bus travellers would be of benefit to Kirkbymoorside.

What is questionable is the need for one grandiose structure in the centre of a relatively unspoilt Market Place. Mr Blyth and colleagues (Letters, March 10) are concerned at the elderly bus passengers having to stand in the rain waiting for a bus; yet they have not considered these same passengers having to walk a considerable distance in inclement weather to reach this solitary shelter.

There are several existing bus stops that would require very little work to accommodate the Perspex- style shelters that can be seen in many towns around North Yorkshire – Pickering being a prime example.

These provide adequate shelter for the bus user, while being unobtrusive, and do not encourage anti-social behaviour.

The correspondents also dismiss the police concerns. The police are speaking from a position of experience of similar situations in nearby towns, and their concerns cannot simply be dismissed as exaggerated. The proposed scheme by the Environment Group requires the re-routing of the buses around what is our main roundabout. They have said this has been tested; however, this trial was on one occasion at 6am, when a tanker could easily have done the same manoeuvre.

Anyone living in Kirkbymoorside will realise that between 8am and 5pm this is practicably impossible due to traffic, deliveries and the sheer number of people around town. Please remove those rose tinted glasses and look at the practical needs of all bus stops in our town.

Howard Mudd, Kirkbymoorside.

* MAY I respond to the letters printed in the March 10 edition of the Gazette & Herald. The letters, on the whole, appeared to suggest that I was opposed to the provision of a bus shelter in Kirkbymoorside; this is not the case.

As part of the Safer Ryedale Partnership, my aim is to ensure that the area remains as safe and free from crime and disorder as possible.

To this end, when I viewed the proposals and saw the original design for the bus shelter I thought that there were certain areas in which it could be improved.

We are fortunate in Ryedale to live in an area of low crime and relatively little anti-social behaviour.

It would be wrong, however, to rest on our laurels, and my comments to the town council clerk in respect of the bus shelter were made to help ensure that if a bus shelter were to be erected then we looked at creating the best possible design and place it in the best possible location.

Sadly, there is always the potential for disorder, and I wished to help those behind the proposal meet their objectives in providing what appears to be a much-needed shelter but without the pitfalls that can arise.

To this end, I have met with some of the interested parties, on site, and talked through the issues of concern. A revised design has now been produced which I believe is much improved and will help alleviate the potential problems I referred to previously.

While in Kirkbymoorside last week, I assisted colleagues in conducting a public confidence survey about how the community perceived their area in terms of crime and disorder. While the analysis has not been made, it would be fair to say of the numbers of people I personally spoke to that the response was very positive, that they believed they lived in an area of low crime and that most had confidence in the Community Safety Partnership.

Together, we can make a difference and keep Ryedale as being one of the safest places to live and work in England.

Sgt Steve Pearse, Safer Ryedale Partnership.

* I WAS resident in the centre of Kirkbymoorside Market Place for more than 25 years until recently. I feel I can therefore comment on the proposed bus shelter, having been a close observer of activity there.

The letters printed last week tried to rubbish the police comments and paint an idyllic picture. None of the people who replied have lived in the centre of town. I can assure them that all of the problems that the police fear may occur, have occurred in the middle of our pleasant town, at some time or other. I am not condemning the youth of the town – far from it, as I have been actively involved with young people in our community for more than 30 years.

However, it is a fact of modern life that the kind of incidents described by the police do happen.

We should conserve the spaciousness of our unique old Market Place. There are safety issues, access for other vehicles, and cost, all of which should be taken into consideration.

There are other more suitable and less obtrusive sites, as suggested by they police.

P M Towler, Kirkbymoorside.

* IT is obvious that a central bus stop, where you can wait sheltered from the rain, will improve the quality of our public transport.

After a design for a bus shelter at Chisholm’s Monument had been proposed to the inhabitants of Kirkbymoorside at a public meeting in Church House in December, the police tell us now that the proposed design is “too large and too grand”, and that it is likely to cause a list of problems.

The solution is, according to what is said in your article, “that an alternative design should be made and another location selected”.

Do we really believe that locating the bus shelter a hundred yards further away does away as well with the list of problems that might be caused?

And those “potential problems”, are they that different from what we experience already? Those problems have nothing to do with a bus shelter. But the way things go it looks as if we will be still standing in the rain for quite some time… René and Maureen Stuip, Kirkbymoorside.

* WHILE there is a need for a bus shelter in Kirkbymoorside, we feel that this proposal is over-ambitious and wrongly sited.

We feel it will become an “outside room” for the pubs, with smokers congregating there, leaving behind glasses and litter, along with the litter from the adjacent food outlets. We also believe that it would become a late night den for the more rebellious youth of Kirkbymoorside, and, as such, would be a nuisance and hazard to the residents in that area.

We would support a clear standard- issue bus shelter (like the one on the A170 near the Appleton-le-Moors turn off) sited outside the Methodist church or the Catholic church at the present bus stop.

Derek and Christine Field, Kirkbymoorside.