YEP Letters February 20

Check out today’s YEP letters

Council’s waste strategy is failing

Martin J Phillips, Leeds 16

I would suggest that with over 50,000 reports of fly-tipping in Leeds over a 12 months 
period, the council’s strategy for dealing with waste and recycling is failing. Rather than encouraging people to take their waste to a recycing centre, the charges brought in by 
the city council is actually promoting fly-tipping.

Blanket 20mph limits expensive solution

Geoffrey North, Leeds.

LEEDS City Council has recently imposed a blanket 20mph speed limit in my local area of the triangle comprising Cross Green Lane, the Outer Ring Road and Selby Road.

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This has cost nearly £30,000 and indeed LCC has spent over £5.2m in the last 10 years creating 20mph speed limit areas in the city.

Whilst fully accepting the need to reduce road accidents, one has to question whether this blanket whitewash approach to road safety is really cost effective.

A recent Government report has shown that there has been no significant improvement in road safety where such zones have been created.

LCC is budgeted to spend a further £600,000 in the next 12 months on introducing further 20mph zones.

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Rather than this one-size-fits-all solution, would it not be more cost effective to take a more targeted approach by installing traffic calming measures, near schools and on roads and junctions where speeds and accidents are a problem?

This would probably have a greater effect on reducing the accident statistics, and at a probably lower cost too.

Time for senior citizens to stand up to BBC

Colin R Lancaster, Guiseley

So, the BBC are considering abolishing free TV for the 
4.5 million (and growing) over 75s.

Have they really thought this through? Do they really believe that those 4.5 million will take this lying down?

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What if a substantial number, if not a majority, of those 4.5 million decide to stand up to the BBC and refuse to pay a licence fee?

Can the BBC really afford the cost and inconvenience of chasing thousands of licence defaulters and the subsequent court cases, always assuming of course, that our courts also have the capacity to accommodate so many additional cases every year.

And, even if the BBC won its case and the defaulters were convicted, what sort of sentences is a judge likely to hand down to senior citizens, many with health or infirmity problems?

I, for one, will refuse to pay a licence fee for the benefit of a channel I rarely watch while it continues to pay ludicrous and obscene salaries, through whatever medium, to people who do little more than read an autocue or ask predetermined questions of some ‘Z’ list celebrity.

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If the Prime Minister can run a country on a salary of around £150,000 then are BBC management, staff and presenters really worth 
more?

Its time for senior citizens to stand up to this outdated and profligate organisation, refuse to pay a licence fee and watch the threat evaporate!

Not told whole truth on Brexit

Barrie Crowther, Walton, Wakefield.

I AM reluctant to say we have been lied to over Brexit.

Suffice to say, we have not been told the whole truth.

Remainer negotiators including our own PM are still determined to shackle us in some way to the EU. They seem to want to part with £39bn to what is no more than a corrupt club, regardless of our own needs.

Time to sack Olly Robbins, the PM’s Remain-supporting Brexit adviser, and employ a Brexiteer, even at this late hour.

Why are MPs still in jobs?

T Maunder, Leeds 5

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these Labour MPs who have resigned were elected on the strength of being Labour Party candidates.

Their constituents voted for them to carry out Labour policies if in power or mount an effective opposition.

Why then are they still in their jobs after these resignations? The same old story of privilege.

These Labour MPs have reneged on election promises by becoming independent. Where is their manifesto?

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What are their economic policies? Where is the accountability to their constituents?

If they’ve resigned from the Labour Party they should resign from their jobs.

MPs should resign seats

John Appleyard, by email

The seven MPs who quit the Labour Party having fought and been elected on Labour’s general election manifesto, ‘for the many not the few’, should immediately resign their seats and call by-elections to test their opinions with the electorate.

They should hand back the cash provided by the Labour Party that paid for their election campaign in 2017.

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The only people who gain by these resignations are Theresa May and the Conservative Government, these defectors offer nothing new, they believe in the same old policies of war and austerity and will come and go like Halley’s comet.

Station should be in airport

Mel Smart, Farsley

If you plan a railway station at an airport surely it should be sited at the airport, not a mile away. The station should be in the airport terminal.

Has no one had a look at where the station is at Manchester? It is in the airport terminal below ground.

The plan at Leeds involves additional transfer of luggage etc from train to bus presumably or an uphill walk of a mile. And when the bus drops you off will there be a £3 drop off charge for the luggage?

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