YEP Letters: September 21

Check out today's YEP letters

A higher degree of gridlock in city

Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

IT’S always striking how Leeds grinds to even more of a halt when the new academic year begins at the city’s two universities.

Do so many of their staff and undergraduates really need to be so dependent on a car? Or is this a sad indictment of public transport in Leeds?

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There was me thinking that students were struggling to afford tuition fees...

Where are winter funds for social care?

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive, Care England.

WHILE we welcome the Government’s announcement to boost the NHS’s resilience to cope with the inevitable pressures this forthcoming winter, it is futile if the social care sector is overlooked. Every winter we see the NHS receive new funding while social care does not.

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that hospitals would receive £145m to prepare for winter demand.

The money will be spent on upgrading wards, redeveloping A&Es and extra beds at NHS trusts across England.

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We hope, however, that the NHS will ensure that it works with the independent care sector to use existing spare capacity in care homes.

The DHSC needs to demonstrate its understanding of the system, or revert to being the Department of Health and dispense with the social care.

Gateway to the world

Stewart Arnold, Leader, The Yorkshire Party.

IT is good to read how highly Chinese visitors and investors rate Yorkshire.

What a shame though that we don’t have an airport which can act as an international gateway for travellers from China.

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It does seem a pity they are routed through either Manchester or Heathrow. Are Yorkshire’s airports ready to step up?

Keep your distance

Amanda Stretton, Motoring Editor, Confused.com.

HAVING spent time out on the road with the police, I was shocked to see just how many drivers were tailgating at high speeds.

It was clear that many are unaware that this type of driving malpractice is illegal and can lead to devastating accidents.

Our research showed 79 per cent of drivers didn’t even know the correct distance to leave between their car and the car in front.

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Motorists should always use the two second rule whereby a driver stays at least two seconds behind any vehicle in front.

Drivers who feel themselves under pressure with an aggressive driver close behind should remain calm and focused on the road ahead.

Negative thinking

D Angood, by email

Having read the letter from Callum Hawthorne (YEP, September 19) one can tell that he is rather disgruntled by the vote to leave the EU.

He is right to query the deal that the PM has cobbled together, as have both leavers and remainers. I believe the politicians that are entrusted with formulating the Brexit deal should have gone about it by first asking the EU what they wanted from our exit and then negotiating what was acceptable to the UK. We should not be offering them a deal.

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Mr Hawthorne seems to have no faith in his fellow citizens of the UK as to what Great Britain should or could be. It appears he and his peers do not have any confidence to procure a future for themselves and want to rely on a nanny state to secure one for them.

He should watch the recent TV programme How the Victorians built Great Britain and he might then learn something that may just make himself and his peers attempt to model themselves on their ancestors.

So much negative thinking coming from the remain side, if only they could turn their thinking round and look at how they can help the country achieve.

The only certain factor about Brexit is that the UK is leaving, all the unknowns are being used by the remainers to try and increase the fear factor.

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One has to remember that the fear factor is also present in the EU but one side has conveniently forgotten that in their argument.

Waiting times don’t benefit anyone

David Mitchell, National Chairman, The British Polio Fellowship

News this week that Personal Independence Payment waiting times have risen three weeks in three months is simply alarming.

This means people wait 14 weeks on average for PIP. As chairman of a charity with over 8,000 people living with Post Polio Syndrome (PPS), many of our members and thousands more are being let down – facing an agony of waiting.

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Statistics show less than half are awarded the benefit at the end of this, yet our members do go on to win on appeal – suggesting this system is flawed.

If you had to wait 14 weeks to be paid, facing the possibility you might not get the money anyway, it would have a catastrophic impact. What’s more, the appeal process means another delay to receive what you are entitled to.

Surely a working assumption those claiming the old benefit will still qualify would make sense and then cut payments if necessary post assessment? This would spare the agony of waiting; a cruel, unusual punishment for people who are not criminals and have done nothing wrong except live with a disability.

One only has to look at the high rate of awards changed and appeals won 
to see the failures in this process. Universal Credit and PIP are meant to help not hinder but until sanity prevails, our help is a phone call away on 0800 043 1935 or visit www.britishpolio.org.uk

Get in touch

The Yorkshire Evening Post wants you to share your views.

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Please send your letters by email to [email protected] or write to Readers’ Letters, Yorkshire Evening Post, No 1 Leeds, 26, Whitehall Road, Leeds LS12 1BE. Please keep letters under 300 words.