YEP feedback: Christmas Eve

Christmas card tidings give me much comfort and joy

Denise Marsden, Cookridge, Leeds

I’ve noticed over the years my friends all tell of writing their Christmas cards, usually in clumps, until they’re finally finished. I know their intentions are to send their love at Christmas, but it has all begun to sound like it’s a chore.

I must admit that I was exactly the same, open up the box of assorted and keep going until I’d done, maybe put in the occasional note.

Fortunately I decided to make my cards instead of buying them. They were all laboriously cut out of Watercolour paper to fit envelopes which I had bought, and I still cut them out the same way. Then it’s maybe tracing a very simple design before I paint them. (I always describe them as like “painting by numbers” – without the numbers!)

When I first started I would do a few special ones, buy the rest, but I enjoyed the feeling of doing something special for everyone at Christmas so that for over 30 years I have made them all.

I hope my friends all know how much joy I get in making them, and although they take time, and sometimes I’m searching for new designs each year, none of it is ever a chore.

I’m not the most talented person in the world, and anyone can use tracing paper and wield a pen. If even this is beyond you, maybe if you put a message in every card, then it would stop being a chore and become a real pleasure.

It’s time for some goodwill to all men

Edna Levi, Stonegate Road, Leeds

I AM not of the Christian faith but does not this time of the year advocate “goodwill towards all men”?

When Peggy Morris’s letter (Karen Matthews should get a job, December 22) berates Karen Matthews about her newfound beliefs, perhaps she should recall these words along with her concerns for all people who pay taxes (of all denominations!) and allow troubled people to gain comfort in any way that helps them. I am sure that the Good Lord will not mind.

Can Santa use the cycle lane?

Robert Holman, Marsden Court, Farsley, Leeds

I WONDER if Santa and his team have got special permission to use the cycle lanes to make their deliveries today, Christmas Eve, after all, it is a question of “priorities” for them.

Show us how much tax we pay

OTwist, Leeds

If every shop showed on their till receipts how much VAT one paid, the public would realise. It seems the pound shops do show just how much one has paid in VAT so why not all shops?

York Street deserves rating

Alex Wilson, via Facebook

Some of the hardest working staff the NHS have kept the York Street Health Practice going. Fantastic achievement for all the staff who go above and beyond for their patients.

This health centre is a lifeline to so many people in the city, I hope it gets the support and funding it needs to continue to provide outstanding care.

Well done Sam and all your fantastic colleagues. You should be proud.

Wildlife rescue open all hours

Annette Pyrah, The Wildlife Orphanage, Low Mill, York Road, Barlby

Throughout the Christmas and New Year festivities our doors will remain open to anyone finding a wild animal or bird in distress. Although Christmas is usually a quiet time in the wildlife calendar, in previous years we have admitted owls, hawks and even a family of baby ducklings found wandering amongst Christmas shoppers.

Our website www.wildlifeorphans.co.uk gives general information and our telephone contact is 0771 1883072. Please don’t hesitate to ring. If we can help, we will. If we can’t, we usually know someone who can.

2016 has been such a busy year for us with many rarer species being admitted for the first time. I would therefore like to thank the many Yorkshire Evening Post readers who have brought orphaned or poorly animals to us in 2016. With your help, these tiny, helpless creatures were given a second chance at life and returned to the wild, where they belong.

May I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a wonderful “Hog”manay!

Remembering Boxing Day floods

Lucinda Yeadon, Deputy leader, Leeds City Council, Executive Member for Environment and Sustainability and ward member for Kirkstall

As we sit down to our Christmas dinner, I’m sure people all over the region will take a second to remember the devastating flooding from last year.

Those of us in Kirkstall cannot forget waking up on Boxing Day to see the water levels rising, eventually taking over Kirkstall Road and turning it into Kirkstall river. From this catastrophe some amazing things happened. People gave up their own free time to commit to the clean-up- working through their Christmas holiday to make a difference in our community. The work has continued throughout this year, with many weekends spent clearing the river and making Kirkstall once more a great place to be.

If the analysis by BCC News is accurate that half of all the money earmarked for flood defences is for protecting the Thames Estuary will be galling for people in Leeds, especially those who spent hours getting Kirkstall back to be the place we know and love. Indeed, if this stays the same, four times as much will be spent on the Thames Estuary than on the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber.

It’s not just Kirkstall where this is infuriating; right along the River Aire, the Calder, the Foss and the Ouse communities will feel the same way. We will not let central government forget that we are survivors of flooding and that we need adequate and appropriate funding for flood schemes to make sure we never have to go through this again.

Merry Christmas from us all

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