YEP Letters: April 25

Windrush indignities are ‘disgrace’

Shaun Kavanagh, by email

The whole situation with regard to those involved in the Windrush generation is a disgrace.

To think people like Joseph Bravo, who arrived in the UK in the 1960s and became an upstanding, hardworking member of the British community and is now having to go through hell to be recognised, is inexcusable. Mr Bravo suffered the indignity of being refused a passport to enable him to travel to Australia to attend his daughter’s wedding, how sad is that? How many more have suffered similar indignities, having lived and served Britain in varying ways only to be failed by the country they served? It’s absolutely appalling. They should never have been put through such experiences. I hope the Prime Minister and her colleagues sort out the whole mess so those involved receive the recognition they rightly deserve.

Solutions to the country’s obesity problem

V Walker, Knaresborough.

YOU recently featured an article on obesity giving the recommended number of calories to be taken in a day. This is always difficult. I would like to add a few suggestions.

Stop eating on the streets. It never used to be accepted and the calories are not needed – it is just comfort food and adds to the litter problem. Restaurants, cafes, takeaways and fish and chip portions should all be smaller as standard, as they used to be, and larger portions available on request. The large plates are ludicrous and unnecessary. Stop promoting alcoholic drinks at the end of a working day as normal.

Scones, cakes and cream cakes all used to be smaller, and more savoury snacks should be promoted, as Greggs have found out. This would reduce the calorie count without counting!

Horror story behind facade

DS Boyes, Leeds 13.

AS time goes by, Theresa May’s minority administration resembles Oscar Wilde’s story The Picture of Dorian Grey.

For although the pleasant face is one of strong, stable and decisive government, lurking behind the scenes is the hideous apparition of a catalogue of errors!

Her disastrous time at the Home Office is coming back to haunt her, most recently with the problems of the Windrush generation that could also be attributed to her. The snap 2017 election focussed only on her, lost the Conservative Party its majority and the public perception of offering a £1bn incentive to Northern Ireland’s DUP MPs for their votes is very poor. The traditional law and order party image that Conservatives like to portray has now gone with obvious loss of control of London’s streets as multiple murders go on and on.

Housing and the high street

David Rhodes, Harrogate.

IN response to articles on

empty shops, may I draw your attention to a detailed study by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) entitled Homes in the High Street.

This report illustrates how many of our empty shops upper floors etc, might become apartments, studios, office suites and workshops.

Empty upper floors and isolated shops are ideal units to help regenerate our town centres with new dwellings.

There is a great potential for the council to work with developers to bring a proportion of the development of new affordable homes into our town centres, funding Homes in the High Street and reducing the need to fully develop greenfield sites.

Local Chambers of Commerce and Trade can help with estate agents and architects to identify appropriate empty locations and work with housing developers. Many empty shops can have their derelict upper floors and rear premises regenerated.

What about paper buds?

Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

THE Government is, quite rightly, planning to ban various “throw-away” plastic items, in a bid to lead the way in trying to save the planet from the scourge of plastic pollution.

One of these items is cotton buds. I hope that they are aware that there are brands of cotton buds whose sticks are made of compressed paper, not plastic. These need to be excluded from any ban.

Fiasco of the Windrush cards

Hilary Andrews, Leeds.

DOES it really matter who destroyed the landing cards of some of the Windrush generation? Surely the time debating this issue would be better spent making the situation right and compensating those who suffered?

Time to replace House of Lords?

Derrick Bond, Shadwell

What a surprise! The unelected toffs in the House of Lords have not only voted against the Government, but also the people of this country.

Is it not time to replace the archaic institution of the House of Lords with something more in tune with modern society?

Now that they have nailed their Brexit colours to the mast, perhaps we can have a referendum to abolish the House of Lords in its present form and replace it with an elected chamber.

The power of local people

Victoria Dickson, Yorkshire & the Humber representative for Community Business Weekend 2018

Every day, tens of thousands of people go to work at one of the 7,000 community businesses in England.

Hundreds of thousands of us shop, visit or benefit from them directly, yet they are still relatively unknown. Amongst them are community shops, with an impressive survival rate of over 95% compared to around 50% for small businesses generally. In some communities, they can be the single biggest employer in the area. That’s why Power to Change, the independent trust supporting community businesses in England, is once again organising Community Business Weekend (May 4-7 2018, #CBwkd18) to shine a light on these community-powered gems that not only bring much needed services and spaces to a community but boost local economies and reinvest the profits for the benefit of local people.

Pubs, libraries, housing, shops, farms, transport, and renewable energy are just some examples operating across Yorkshire & the Humber. The Weekend is a unique opportunity for community businesses to invite local people to understand how they can get involved in running a business for community good and have a say in local decision making.