YEP Letters February 5

Sick of unnecessary form-filling

Hilary Andrews, Leeds.

CAN it only be me who is sick to death of filling in surveys?

I am having weekly physiotherapy following a bad road accident at the moment.

Each time I go I have to fill in my name, date of birth, address, sex, GP name and address, my ethnicity and whether or not I have been in the UK more than 18 months.

It fills in a bit of time whilst I am waiting, but I would love to know how all that information is used and why it is necessary every time I attend.

Concern over Wykebeck Valley work

Jordan Warner, by email

I’m writing regarding the appalling standard of work occurring in the Wykebeck Valley area.

Firstly, the entire stretch of Wykebeck Valley Road was incompletely resurfaced quite a few months back now. Loose chippings were left to be “naturally flattened” by traffic and over the weeks these loose chippings have been pushed out into piles along the edges of the road, which have caused me to fall off my bicycle several times now, injuring myself in the process. Is this a new form of parsimonious road resurfacing to cut costs?

Secondly, the area around the bottom of Gipton Approach indefinitely reeks of gas. Consistently, workers visit the area, dig everything up, seal it and leave. Months later – gas still lingering in the air – workers return, dig up the area, seal it and leave – repeating cyclically, leaving hazardous open trenches for weeks at at time.

Thirdly, right before Christmas, council workers inexplicably began work of some kind on the tower blocks in the area. Of course, they didn’t complete the jobs – leaving scaffolding, storage containers and construction waste adjacent to the buildings. This pleasant site was enjoyed by the families and friends of the residents (majority of whom are retirees and elderly) visiting over the festive period.

Finally, Killingbeck Fields – what on earth is going on? I’ve heard the intention is to create a nature walk for humans. Doesn’t destroying the habitats of local wildlife during hibernation season to make the area more accessible to humans seem paradoxical?

Work began last Christmas which included the removal of trees (destroying rookeries), creating large flooded potholes (destroying burrows) and completely decimating the field, turning it into a boggy quagmire. Since then, little progress has been seen.

Recently, workers came and installed hundreds of metal construction fences along the tree line – how much did all that cost? Who accepted the proposal to do this? Are ecologists even consulted?

Brexit referendum

Richard Saberton, by email

The BBC and other news organisations are offering ‘jargon busting’ classes to explain the big words associated with Brexit.

Pity the difference between a ‘Referendum’ and a ‘General Election’ hasn’t been explained to the ‘Remainers’. A Referendum is basically a one question one answer vote. A simple ‘yes/no’, ‘in/out’, ‘stay/leave’. Very divisive, it requires people to make a positive decision and there are only winners and losers.

A General Election is a series of questions with multiple answers, all with slight variation and nuances, so you never get a clear indication one way or the other. Hence the option to review your decision every four years. It’s like comparing apples with oranges, both fruits, both vaguely round but completely different!

However the oft repeated accusation that there was misdirection, misleading statements and lies, on both sides, is probably true. What do you expect? The whole process was orchestrated and overseen by politicians. Their default setting is to exaggerate the positives, minimise the negatives and don’t let the truth get in the way of a good argument. Basically what everyone does when they want you to back them. Are we so naive and gullible to believe otherwise?

But let’s not forget that just because our parliament is so inept and ineffectual to implement the Brexit Referendum doesn’t mean the decision was wrong.

We don’t do deals on freedom

Graham Hill, Wakefield

WHERE are the real British leaders proud to serve and lead a compelling and meaningful cause such as Brexit?

The Labour leadership that has no purpose, or real cause, has missed the greatest opportunity it has ever had to lead the people of this country.

I, myself, am from a true working class background from Normanton, Wakefield, and have always voted Labour.

Now in my 60s, I feel I have the right to be heard by people like Yvette Cooper. Brexit gave the Labour party its greatest opportunity to govern this great country again. However, due to its total lack of leadership and small-minded vision, it has no real direction.

Yvette, rise up out of the weeds, raise the British flag above the rooftops of Yorkshire and tell these Europeans that they will never be allowed to have a say in how we manage our borders, lead our people or govern our people.

Tell them we would like to trade with the countries of Europe, but we don’t do deals over freedom.

Grayling could derail plans

Bruce Anderton, Otley

THE Northern Powerhouse Rail plans are surely to be welcomed – but haven’t we been on this line before, only to later find that similar schemes heralded by equally-hopeful fanfares were ultimately derailed or cancelled in favour of southern-based infrastructure advances?

I also note that the long-awaited (but very obviously unaffordable and unsustainable) Leeds-Bradford Airport rail line now seems to have disappeared in favour of a link road, but that’s just common sense. The real problem with Northern transport proposals is the attitude of Chris Grayling, the “southern-centric Transport Secretary”. As long as he remains in post, proposals such as these are very unlikely to reach fruition, however much local protagonists may press for their implementation.

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