Readers' letters - August 17
Whatever happened to the Garden City we were promised when the council gave the go-ahead for all the housing developments in the Cottam and Higher Bartle area?
We are left with the wonderful recreation area which Taylor Wimpey is supposed to have created.
It is a disgrace and appears totally unsafe.
Can no one get a grip of what is going on?
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Hide AdI see we are now going to have a cafe and health and beauty salon at Maxy House Farm, just what we need.
The cafe is supposed to provide food for the nursery.
Surely it would make more sense to provide a new medical centre to alleviate the pressure on the already over-subscribed health centre in the area?
Maybe I’m being too optimistic that the council may do something decent in the area instead of us looking at a concrete blot on the landscape.
We used to have quite a pleasant outlook in the area.
Not anymore, thanks to the council and the developers.
Ellen Moon
via email (Pictured: An aerial view of the planned buildings at Ashbridge at Maxy Farm, Cottam)
ROYALTY
Charles could be a good king
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Hide AdLike many other contributors to “Dianafication”, Janet Berry is taken in by the late Princess’s cunning manipulation of the media. After watching Channel 4’s documentary on Diana, your correspondent concludes that “Charles and Camilla are not fit to be King and Queen” (LP August 12).
While Diana was allowed to unleash her spite in lurid revelations about their private life, which were only designed to humiliate the Prince, any representations on behalf of the heir to the throne were conspicuous by their absence.
By contrast, to my knowledge, Charles has never been judgmental of Diana in public.
His sense of decency has allowed him no more than remarks in letters quoted in Jonathan Dimbleby’s official biography: “How awful incompatibility is.”
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Hide AdIn the fullness of time, Charles may get the respect he deserves and become a good king.
I am persuaded by remarks made by the distinguished conductor John Eliot Gardiner: “Charles is under-estimated and misunderstood.
“He is informed on all sorts of issues and committed to addressing the world’s problems – climate change, the Amazon rainforest, food production. He’s a troubled soul but he’s got his feet on the ground. And he’s very good company.”
Brian Sheridan
Address supplied
animal welfare
Highest welfare standards
In response to Sue Lister’s letter, The Case for Going Vegan (LP Letters, August 15), the consumption of dogs and horses is a cultural dietary practice, which is not undertaken in the UK.
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Hide AdHow many so-called “factory farms” has Ms Lister visited to base her assumptions on? The UK has the highest welfare standards in the world, which are strictly adhered to and policed by the supermarkets, local councils, farming bodies, RSPCA and national government inspectors to name but a few.
Cows are not baby-making machines. It has always been my understanding that cows produce calves and humans produced babies.
Giving hormones to farm animals has been banned in this country for over 40 years. Every litre of milk produced is tested on a daily basis by the dairy companies. If Ms Lister is aware of someone who is illegally using growth hormones, I suggest she contacts the relevant authorities for the matter to be investigated. It is Ms Lister’s choice to be vegan but I suggest that, in future, she checks her facts before making sweeping statements regarding the dairy industry.
Diane Armitage
Address supplied
population
Too many people
In the last 50 years, there have been numerous world meetings to discuss the reasons for climate change and the running out of the planet’s resources without ever identifying the real reason we are in the state we are, namely the population explosion.
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Hide AdIf the planet’s population was three billion and not seven billion, all the current problems would not exist.
And yet we are making the problem worse by pouring money into scientific research to improve health and increase life expectancy when we should be finding ways to control the world’s population.
The problems we have now will pale into insignificance when, in the remainder of this century, the globe’s population hits 10 billion.
RD
via email
travel
Pensioners are better drivers
As an almost 72-year-old man, I can’t help but notice how people seem to think that people of my age are past our sell-by date. Firstly, people think we should take a driving test again at 70.
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Hide AdCan I ask them, how many times do you see people of my age using mobile phones whilst driving, not wearing seat belts, breaking motorway speeds and driving more than 30mph in built-up areas?
Most people between 20 and 40 don’t appear to have indicators.
These are the ages where they should be taking a test.
Ken Fleming
via email
travel
Nationalise
our railways
Commuters in Britain spend six times as much on rail fares as passengers in the rest of Europe and now we hear from the Government that nearly half of rail fares
are to rise by nearly four per cent. Meanwhile the private train operating companies paid out £228m to their shareholders and the same companies received a public handout of £3.2bn in the same year.
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Hide AdThese same companies, in conjunction with the Government, are putting our security at risk by plotting to get rid of guards on our trains which would, of course, help boost their profits and is one good reason for taking the railways back into public ownership.
John Appleyard
Address supplied