YEP letters: December 2

Looking after the environment (and our energy bills), health care in Leeds, speaking out against development and saying thank you for clearing up are among the topics for comment in today's letters.

Don’t let the post steal the heat

Martin Hemingway, St Chads Drive, Leeds

Earlier this week I was delivering Green Party leaflets in Headingley that publicise the need to keep homes warm as a health measure.

Energy conservation is a major strand of Green Party policy on this issue.

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In every other house, it seemed, the letterbox was propped open by a badly delivered bundle of leaflets, a couple of commercial flyers, and the card from Leeds City Council advising the dates for collections of waste over the Christmas period. Of course I pushed these through as I delivered my own.

It is clearly going to affect the energy conservation in a house if the letter box is propped open by badly delivered leaflets, and it cannot be good for the reputation of the City Council to be associated with this.

I have today written to the Leader of Leeds City Council to ask that the instructions given to external deliverers be reviewed, or if pushing through is already required then th

Two faces of our health care services

Coun Peter Gruen,Ward Councillor for Crossgates and Whinmoor Ward

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In football we sometimes talk about a game of two halves. Using this analogy I think our Health and Care services in Leeds can be described in this way.

On the one hand we have an Autumn Statement from the Chancellor without a reference, never mind a pound, for elderly care; our A&E departments are at breaking point, far too many of our patients should not be in hospital but moved to much more appropriate intermediate home care, a beds winter crisis is almost upon us and we have the return of ‘trolleys’ being used whilst patients wait for a bed.

On the other hand our Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust has just achieved a ‘good’ rating from CQC with very positive affirmation of the leadership of Julian Hartley and Linda Pollard, and at their recent summit they showed commendable ambition by agreeing to go for ‘Outstanding’ next time; their Charitable Trust under the enthusiastic leadership of Edward Ziff is raising more funds than ever before; we have a thriving and diverse Third Sector with many local Community Leaders making a real impact; nearly all our GP practices are ranked as ‘Good’; our Mental Health and Community Trusts are working their socks off, the Leeds Medical Committee under the excellent leadership of Richard Vautrey is giving honest and independent national advice; the three CCGs are scoping out new models of care and are great Health Partners; our Director of Public Health has published two well received and influential reports and the Adult Social Care team has been highly praised by an external ‘ Peer challenge’.

There are so many talented and hard working individuals throughout these services, 
who go the extra mile every 
day; who do fantastic work, whether routine or ground breaking; who believe in the NHS and who won’t give up despite all the failings they face. Let’s be proud of them and thank them and trust they will see us through to a winning end.

Well done for speaking up

Dr Michael Lowry, Mosely Wood Gardens, Cookridge

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Councillor Tom Leadley is to be applauded for his honest appraisal of the Leeds plans panel, and their much criticised granting of planning consent for Soggy Bottom in Cookridge.

This whole saga does 
much to illustrate what happens when a few poorly advised and sometimes 
cajoled local representatives give consent for a 
development that will have far reaching and costly implications for the people of Leeds in future.

Meanwhile the developer will have trousered their profits and waved goodbye, to move on their next green field site.

Well done for cleaning up

Haley Midgley, by email

I AM very much into my fitness outdoors running at local beauty spots. I have seen the community waste team on numerous occasions cleaning up local fitness hot spots.

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It was on the second time I decided to talk to them being nosey on what they were doing!

It amazes me how they take their time away from business hours to give something back to our community and making it a better place.

It’s very rare you come across genuine people like this nowadays, and to say they are not a massive company I’ve heard of it’s a lovely touch! I believe great things like this need to be recognised.

Making hard work of it

Terry Watson, Adel

Why is our Government making such hard work of leaving the EU, the worst trading block in the world? Are their hearts not really in it?

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Does Theresa May think that by delaying it for so long that the millions who voted to leave will lose interest?

An international law expert, Ingrid Delta Frankopan recently said that Theresa May and her Ministers were getting bogged down on Article 50 details, claiming that the UK could leave today if it wanted to. She insisted that second rate lawyers are misleading us that in order to leave, we have to trigger article 50 in its entirety.

This line has been swallowed whole, it is however absolute nonsense. Article 50 makes no mention of the requirement to trigger it to leave, and said the technical aspects could be interpreted by the country’s own Constitution. In fact there is no need for any agreement with the EU at all! Another alternative of course is to ignore any formal process for leaving the EU and simply ask Parliament to repeal the 1972 Act which made us a member. The sooner we get out the better.

The £375m we pay weekly to Brussels could be spent to benefit our own country instead of being squandered by the EU .

The spellcheck generation

Mrs Judith Harris, Sandringham Gardens, Leeds

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We seem to have a lot of awareness weeks or days in recent times on various topics so what about a National Spelling one?

Recently, I have seen appalling spelling so I suggest that there could be schemes where adults could go to a volunteer at a centre to learn, or colleges could offer spelling lessons free of charge that week.

Computers have an in-built “spell-checking” system, don’t people use it or is it that they don’t care? I am sure we could do a lot more to improve the nations spelling skills!

I do appreciate America

Terry Maunder, Kirkstall, Leeds

I WOULD like to reassure Roger Bates that I am very appreciative of the role America played in securing my “freedom”, with all its boundaries of what is and is not acceptable behaviour and its limitations.

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I do not appreciate though the current generation who, on social media for example, thinks that “freedom” means saying and doing what you like with impunity.

I am even more appreciative, however, of the role in Europe that Communist country, the old USSR, also played in securing my freedom. A role that America, who Mr Bates does not like me criticising, wrote out of all their history books in the 1950s so as to promote the notion that Communism is evil and wrong.

Animal fat in fivers poser

Ernest Lundy, by email

Without risking offering a finite opinion on the subject of animal fat being used in the production of new five pound notes, or indeed any other notes, I couldn’t help smiling to myself when, on BBC 5 live radio, I heard a vegetarian opposed to this, say how long it took him to shop while taking care to avoid purchasing food containing animal by–products.

My immediate mental response was: “Surely he wasn’t intending to eat his fivers!”

Let us know your views

Your letters, every day

Join the debate or start one of your own.

Should our fivers be vegan? Do you know someone in Leeds, like the community waste team, who deserve a bit of praise?

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