YEP Letters: February 21

No accountability, no investment

Jim Smith, Whitkirk

You will not get a transport system to match the north west until you get an elected mayor for central Yorkshire.

Who is accountable for money spent in Leeds City Council for all the bad decisions that they make? Money wasted on trolley bus supertram system. No one?

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

We are now in 2017, this is the year that electrification was going to start on the rail link, Manchester to Leeds and Hull.

The electrification to Liverpool, Manchester is now completed.

No accountability = no investment in Yorkshire.

Fed up with excuses for cuts in local services

Geoff Holloran, Leeds 9

Congratulations to the Garforth Councillors Dobson and Field for standing up and declaring what many of us in Leeds have felt for many years, that the Labour group in Leeds who currently have control of our city’s future have “poor leadership and stifle debate”.

Which I believe they have demonstrated by pushing ahead with vanity schemes such as the costly cycle highways, which do not benefit the vast majority of Leeds residents and the millions of pounds being spent on putting together a transport plan for our city which should have been in place ten years ago.

We all have a chance to send a message to these Labour politicians across Leeds in the 2018 local elections that we are fed up with the same old excuses for the reduction in local services.

The facts are that the majority of elderly persons homes and day centre closures happened under a Labour government.

Councillors helped the community

D M Stocks, by email

I JOINED the Labour Party to work with Councillor Mark Dobson and Councillor Sarah Field, two hard working councillors who have both helped me and our community a great deal on a variety of issues.

After many years of dedicated service to Garforth and Swillington Labour Party I’m disappointed none of the branch officers have publicly come out against Leeds Labour Group in support of Coun Dobson or Coun Field.

To claim he wasn’t coping with being a councillor is absurd and the councillors making these comments know this.

Both councillors go above and beyond their duty to help their community.

I will be leaving The Labour Party immediately to help my local councillors campaign for Garforth and Swillington Independents.

Dogs fouling footpaths

Mike Lowry, by email

I felt I needed to respond to what could be construed by some as a relatively unimportant issue but one which is actually quite a nuisance.

It is suggested that dog poo bags should be placed around residential areas so that owners who have not got a bag will be able to clean up after their pet. The random distribution of bags for use by owners’ dogs is unlikely to make any difference to those who just don’t care about their dogs fouling footways.

It could be useful instead of posting bags around the area, to campaign those responsible with a few facts, not least of which is inconvenience for residents, but at worst potentially fatal consequences due to infection spread to people and other animals.

The remedy is simple. I take three bags on a walk with my dog (tied to the lead): one for the inevitable collection, a second in case of repeat performance, and a third in case another responsible dog owner has forgotten a bag as has happened, in which case I am happy to let them have the spare. Education is far better than random distribution of bags, which if unused will deteriorate anyway. If we take on a dog, then a few pennies extra is a small price to pay.

I am pleased this is being considered as an important issue, but would seriously doubt the effectiveness of having bags at intervals which may be remote from the site of the ‘dog drop’. Own a dog? then be responsible to your neighbours.

I won’t mention horses and their seemingly immune riders!

Inadequate pensions

Malcolm Shedlow, Moortown

Since writing in about the BBC saying that pensioners are £20 better off a week than workers, I have read in a national newspaper that they were talking about pensioners that still work have a pension and a private pension.

I always thought that one couldn’t wait to retire to have the time to enjoy yourself if still able to.

The way they made out was that when one retired, you were better off than a person who worked.

The majority of retired pensioners have to rely on the inadequate pension that we get.

Charity should begin at home

Ernest Lundy, by email

I see that once again we geriatrics are being blamed for the parlous state the NHS and social services etc find themselves in.

Nothing new there then! The flood of immigrants legal or otherwise and all the attendant problems, putting an extra unpaid for burden on the systems, couldn’t have anything to do with it, could it?

When it comes down to the exorbitant cost of care in residential and nursing homes, and statements that our older generations are living too long, ... strangely at odds with what we know of how those with assets, including the value of their homes have to pay for that care.

Yet this is the generation, what’s left of it, that has paid for such care throughout their long working lives. Only to see their savings vanish while others get by for free. Finally how can the government even mention such things as this while still sending millions overseas in foreign aid?

Charity should begin at home and the clowns in office should be made to realise this.

THOUSANDS of disadvantaged people in Leeds could be handed free home broadband and tablet computers as city bosses bid to boost the digital economy and galvanise an electronic revolution. Here’s how YEP readers have been reacting to the proposal on Facebook..

Stephen Brook

Oh brilliant, yet something else those who don’t work will get free.

It really pays to do nothing in this country. The rest of us have to pay for our broadband. How about free broadband for us all? How about free bus travel for all us who work in Leeds? Oh no, no, no. It really pays to be bone idle in this country.

Gary David Spink

As many others have said, how about you invest this money into better services that you are cutting back on. This is nowhere near to being a priority.

Also, sorry but they already have enough given to them, pampering them even more won’t make them go out and get a job it will have the opposite effect.

Richard Everson

Great idea. If it pays for itself then this would be welcome, never mind the social inclusion.

People can borrow a tablet or laptop, and hopefully be then able to buy a cheap version.

Verity Dolan

Could they give the £45m to our hospitals instead please?

This is ridiculous, yet more free stuff for the people who don’t work paid for by the people who do

After a three day stint in Jimmy’s last week, where there weren’t even blankets on the first ward I was on and no drip stands on the next ward, I can see this money being better spent else where.

Plenty of people manage to get jobs without internet or computers, if some aren’t even prepared to put the effort into finding a job I’m not sure what the point is!

When will the government apply a bit of common sense. My dad always managed to have job without internet, saying that, so have I .