LETTERS: November 18

Subjects up for discussion on today's YEP letters pages include Kirkgate Market, whether the council has got the right vision for the future of Leeds and the sad case of a blind dog abandoned in a city park. Join the debate, email [email protected]
Leeds Kirkgate MarketLeeds Kirkgate Market
Leeds Kirkgate Market

Please see sense over market

Jim Smith, Whitkirk

First time in Leeds market today, for over 12 months, and I was shocked at the amount of empty shops and stalls, Butcher Row empty and no stalls in the market hall at the back.

Who are these people who manage this great asset to our city? Less stalls equals less footfall. Higher rents equals empty stalls equals less income for the council.

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Half the rents, fill the empty stalls, then you would have more footfall. A full market means more income. A full market means more footfall into John Lewis. A full market means a full carpark. And more rents for those who manage this once great Leeds Market. Please see sense, Leeds City Council.

And please don’t get me started on the rapid underground transport system that we don’t have.

We need a city to be proud of

Chris Russell, Leeds

I am just dropping you a line in response to Greg Mulholland MP’s article in regards to Leeds city councillors and their inability to get in place a rapid transit system for our city.

The idiots that run our council absolutely infuriate me with their lack of vision for our city! They appear to have no ambition, no passion and no desire to bring Leeds into the 21st century.

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For decades we have pleaded with the council to do something in regards to a rapid transit system and after spending more than £81m we still have nothing to show the world.

Are these the same councillors that are thinking about submitting a bid to be the European City Of Culture? We need a city we can be proud of, we need a city that people will flock to, we need a city that shows true ambition and growth.

Unfortunately we have people running the council who have no vision, no foresight or the guts to actually do anything that is outside the “norm”.

Councillors should be held legally responsible for the lack of vision and modernisation, for spending millions of pounds on talks and consultations with no action or movement on progress!

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How these councillors manage to keep their seats is beyond me! If I was so poor at my job I would have been dismissed! Who is in charge of these people?

We need a council leader who has true passion for the city, to fight tooth and nail for the funding to get the things this city wants and needs. We are tired of those who can spend millions upon millions and achieve nothing,

We do not want councillors who do not have the best interest of the city at heart.

Will president suit our palates?

Ernest Lundy, by email

I agree with much of what Terry Maunder says in his letter of today (YEP, November 17) but would like to point out that few of us have not said the wrong things, or spoken out of turn, in our lives from time to time; for which we hope to be forgiven.

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The fact that others disagree is of course the ‘bone of contention’, which is their right. But in this instance as to what Mr Trump has said in his pre-election speeches etc, Terry believes he would have been hung drawn and quartered metaphorically, or at least arrested, had he said the same in the UK.

Perhaps he is right to assume so!

However, have we not within our midst those who preach sedition and death to those who do not conform to their views? Why they are not punished is a mystery. William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) was put to death for much less.

But going back to the orations of Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton: Perhaps we should not be surprised at some of the views and statements made by both contenders throughout the campaign.

Politics is a dirty business, as most right minded people realise.

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But the proof of the pudding, as they say, lies with the eating of it.

Until it is actually on the table we will just have to 
wait and see if it suits our palates.

Animal abusers must be stopped

Jennifer White, Assistant Press Officer, PETA UK

A person capable of dumping a blind, neglected dog in a park (‘Blind dog found dumped in park’, YEP, November 15) should worry those in the local community.

People who pick on the defenceless, whether dogs, children or any other vulnerable being, are dangerous and need to be stopped before they cause further harm and kill again. Research into psychology and criminology informs us that individuals who commit acts of cruelty to animals often go on to harm humans if they aren’t stopped.

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For this reason, it’s crucial that whoever is responsible be apprehended and that our legal system ensure that convicted perpetrators receive the maximum sentence, including prison time, counselling and a lifetime ban on keeping animals.

Otherwise, we endanger the lives of animals and humans alike.

Press MPs on hospital plans

Gilda Peterson, Leeds

Maybe we should be pleased to hear that the authors of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Plan to reshape health services acknowledge that finances are a challenge (YEP, November 11) but it is a pity that they then go on to sketch out a plan to cut their own throats.

They aim to take almost a billion pounds out of the health care budget in West Yorkshire over the next five years and get £0.2 bn back for good behaviour, much of which they acknowledge will get sucked up plugging current deficits, not transforming services.

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How much more inspiring it would be to see our clinical commissioning groups and local councils stand up for health services and refuse to collude with the Government’s plans to cut, dismantle, fragment and privatise the NHS.

Huddersfield, Halifax and Dewsbury are already on course to lose fullscale A&Es and now we hear that hyperstroke units will be centralised, services closed and rationing of treatment and medicines imposed across the region. Small GP practices will go to the wall. Taking care of ourselves, our friends and relatives is now flagged up as “the standard offer”. The planners hope that demand on hospital care will miraculously decline and beds and staff can be shifted out of our hospitals.

But the UK is already one of the lowest spenders on health care in Europe and has less than half the hospital beds per 1,000 population than Germany and France.

We need to press our councillors and MPs to toss these ’slash and trash’ plans into touch. Politicians must join forces with the Royal College of Physicians, who have warned that the NHS is “underfunded, under doctored and overstretched” and urge the Government to give the NHS the resources it needs to provide excellent, safe care for us all.

Politicians have no ambitions

Nigel Bywater, Morley

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In response to the fears that Leeds has a traffic problem that is causing 700 premature deaths per year. Glasgow, a similar population when compared to Leeds, has had a subway system for more than 120 years.

The politicians running Leeds have no ambition, just because the Supertram system failed, does not mean that Leeds should accept our current system that is second rate.

Everything that politicians do these days seems to be the course of least friction. It must have taken guts and determination back in 1896 when the underground subway was built in Glasgow. The Government are able to finance and build multi-million pound HS2. So what about public transport? What we need is the MPs that represent Leeds and West Yorkshire to stand-up and not just be yes men for the Government.

New home for charity shop

Shelley Mills, area organiser for Cards for Good Causes

I’m part of the Cards for Goods Causes team which has run the charity Christmas card shop in Wakefield for 14 years, raising much needed funds for national and local charities.

We are operating from a new location this year.

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Formerly in the Cathedral, and last year in a shop unit on Westgate, the pop-up shop is now located in Wakefield Library in Wakefield One, Burton Street – we are already open and the shop is run by local volunteers.

We are desperately trying to let our many regular customers know where they can find the shop and support their favourite charities under one roof.

We have more than 30 charities available in the library, including Yorkshire Cancer Research and Wakefield Hospice. We are open from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday until December 17.

Through your page we would like to thank Wakefield Library for its kind support and also raise awareness to our customers who haven’t yet heard about our new home. We look forward to seeing everyone at the library soon.

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