FURTHER to Stephen Ford's letter (Mercury, February 13), we too - as regular walkers along this stretch - are concerned about the rapidly disappearing beach at Hopton.

FURTHER to Stephen Ford's letter (Mercury, February 13), we too - as regular walkers along this stretch - are concerned about the rapidly disappearing beach at Hopton. Even the dunes are being washed away and places where the wooden steps lead from the dunes to the beach are now inaccessible. The wooden steps are unsafe, with many steps either rotten or washed away.

How long before all this area is fenced off and declared unsafe, as has happened at the Hopton/Corton borders? We can't help but feel this deterioration in beach erosion may have links with the construction of the new outer harbour. It all seems to be too much of a coincidence. What is happening to the promised “hold the line for the next 10 years” and maintain the defences? There is still no start to the caulking work that was promised on the concrete defences.

RON BROWN

Sea View Rise

Hopton-on-Sea

IT grieved me to read that a nurse has been disciplined for offering to pray for a patient in her care. Living in this once Christian country, it is a sad indictment when true Christian people are in danger of losing their jobs if they display their faith in any way. Are we Christians now in a minority group and are we being treated with unfair prejudice?

Over many centuries prayer has proved to be a very powerful form of healing and it is every Christian person's duty to offer it to anyone who is suffering in any way. Of course there is always the opportunity for the one to whom it has been offered, to decline.

It has been my Christian experience that prayer can heal, either physically, mentally or spiritually, and when all else fails, many people often turn to prayer as a last resort.

I was very heartened to see President Barack Obama praying publicly for the people of the United States, and the Prime Minister of Australia leading his parliament in prayer for the casualties of the horrific bush fires in Victoria.

Is it time for all Christians in our country to stand up and be counted, and to refuse to be bullied into denying a demonstration of their faith?

If every Christian medical worker was willing to be sacked because they dared to demonstrate their faith in such a practical way, I believe our Health Service could be brought to its knees, and come to think of it that might not be such an inappropriate position for it to be in.

VALERIE HOWKINS

King Street

Great Yarmouth

IT is sad to see the beach huts being demolished; they should never have been allowed to fall into such a state to start with.

Other seaside places have waiting lists for beach huts but Gorleston cannot keep in good repair the ones they had. Maybe there is a reason for this, perhaps we will see in the not too distant future, a large car park on this now open site, complete with Pay and Display. I hope I am wrong.

Mrs SANDRA WEST

Garnham Road

Gorleston

AN interesting and informative letter from Stephen Ford (Mercury, February 13). Would I be correct in saying that, like the Thames Barrier project, the Power Regeneration and Expansion Program was slashed, though the budget remained the same, and indeed increased?

The original height of the Thames barrier was reduced by John Prescott. One can only guess as to who removed the reef project from PREP. Does one have to assume that when caravans, chalets and houses start falling into the sea, the sceptics can claim another anomaly?

Even those with limited intelligence realise that we cannot prevent Yarmouth from becoming an island.

Councils and the like seem very fond of putting tax-payers' money into offshore accounts - today's Yarmouth could well be the Cayman Islands of the future, at the very least formulating the moat for Norwich Castle. Erosion is not just about tide, sea, sand and weather conditions, electrolysis pathways play a vital role, which was what the reef project was all about, The incredible stupidity shown by successive governments beggars belief. Bankers with no qualifications, Lords that have done nothing wrong, children having children, astronomical rewards for failure and the allowance for our lads to get killed for the sake of a handful of batteries. This is not my idea of how England should be and I think people should give serious consideration as to where they put their mark in the next general election.

J K LINDSAY

Trinity Avenue,

Gorleston

FURTHER to the debate on proposed Asda extension, and the resulting jobs promised by Asda. Should this succeed, I feel some thought should be given to employment by large supermarkets.

1 Most supermarket jobs are part-time, so three supermarket jobs are probably equal to one full-time job.

2 Many supermarket jobs are at unsocial hours.

3 Pay awarded by supermarkets is mostly at the base rates.

4 Approximately every three supermarket jobs equals one job lost elsewhere.

5 Probably every 10 supermarket jobs equals the closure of one high street shop.

On this basis I think very serious thought should be given before granting planning permission to any large superstore.

A T DENTON

Nuffield Crescent

Gorleston

SOME years ago, in Bermondsey Street, London SE1, I spotted in the window of a bric-a-brac shop a fine working model of the MFV Rose (YH 312) with a plaque suggesting that the actual body or model was made in 1986.

Although some three feet long, with a beam of nearly 10 inches, I got the model home in an improvised sling without damage.

Could someone in the Great Yarmouth fishing community tell me more about the real boat's history - the date she was launched, the name of the boatyard and who owned her? And why should the model have “grounded” so far from its port?

I can be contacted at Flat 4, 77 South Park Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 8RT.

CHRISTOPHER R ELLIOTT

REFERENCE the front page article in the Mercury, February 6, re parking zones.

It would appear that no parking scheme will be totally acceptable to all our town councillors but the inability to work together throws up some interesting points.

Labour leader Cllr Castle is against allowing holidaymakers and local residents to park in “residents only zones” during the day when they are usually underused, a suggestion mooted by the Conservative-run council during a recent Tourist Authority meeting. A meeting no doubt aimed at improving the attraction of the borough to holidaymakers, seeing that the town needs this trade to survive.

But no, the old chestnut of “empty pay car parks” is again thrown into the arena as an argument to justify more “residents only zones.”

The obvious point being missed is that pay parking areas are empty because people do not want to pay through the nose to park. To utilise empty free parking zone spaces during the day to encourage trade seems reasonable. On the other hand, it is hard to believe that the council embarked on a project that fails to support itself.

With a �29k deficit it seems that a basic business plan was never thought through; total sale of permits against cost of scheme. If the figures quoted of raising permit fees from �25 to �42 to make the system self-financing are correct, then the original costing was well off the mark. Cllr Plant rightly points out he does not believe other borough residents should have to subsidise “residents only zones” to the detriment of their own quality of life.

I doubt that Cllr Castle really believes that if resident parking zone schemes are compromised in any way, residents who have already paid would not be compensated in some way. No more than I believe results of polls conducted by political parties, but then who does? But it is noticeable that this campaigning for zoning of the borough appears to follow party political boundaries.

T ANDREWS

Northern Close

Caister on Sea

I WISH to commend the work ethic of Great Yarmouth Borough Council refuse collectors who, last Friday, February 13, at around 9.30am, not only emptied the very large refuse collection bin from the passageway next to Spud-U-Like, but also cleared from the road the debris of refuse that had fallen between the gap when the large bin was lifted. It is with this attitude that Yarmouth can again become the pride of the county - well done!

ELIZABETH ALWAY

Email

I WAS saddened to hear that Great Yarmouth Borough Council are to close their office based in Gorleston Library at the end of March. Personally, I found the facility invaluable, enabling me to not only pay council tax, but also able to obtain accurate balances and information.

Obviously I can pay at pay-point premises, but they do not have information available that this office supplied.

Finally I would like to thank the staff based at this office who have been courteous and helpful at all times, I personally will be sorry to see the loss of this facility.

Obviously, I can now go to Yarmouth and add to the traffic problems and parking nightmare to avail myself of the same services that I have been denied locally.

C KAMINSKI

Address withheld

FOR the last few weeks, Northgate Street has been closed from Apollo Walk to Northgate Road with signs that say clearly road closed, yet we still have cars going up and down, cutting across the pub car park and junction. If the road is closed then no traffic apart from the people who live on that part of the road or work at the hospital or business should be allowed to enter the closed part or why put up road closed?

T HUBBLE

Northgate Street

Great Yarmouth

SOME Dutch painter of seascapes, by the name of Pieter Boer, sent me a press cutting from the Mercury: “Walk on the beach reveals a bottlemail Venus,” (January 23). The attached note says he received it from a friend in Great Yarmouth.

The article refers to the finding of a bottlemail on Hemsby beach by Beauty, the border collie of Mr Mark Crafer. Of course I'm pleased by the overseas attention, although I read some inaccuracies.

Den Hoorn, where I live, is by no means a town, but an old and cosy village on the island of Texel (650 inhabitants).

The found picture is an etching, and the number 2/30 is an usual way of numbering etchings. It means that it is the second print out of a series of 30 copies. Lucky for me not all 30 were sent overseas, because I “promote” an artwork till bottlemail only, in case I decide it is not good enough to sell, but, on the other hand, too good to end in the wastepaper basket.

The picture does not show a Venus, but the fishmonger's wife. On a warm, sunny day I met her at the nudist beach around the corner from where I live. And believe me or not, she was rising from the waves with those two flat fishes clutched in her hands.

Thank Beauty for me, a border collie with a keen eye for the beauty one may receive from the sea!

HENDRIK NOORLANDER

Den Hoorn

Texel, NL

IF space is not at a premium I wonder if your older readers would like to come down to earth with the currency they remember.

Today's prices:

1 pint of (delivered) milk, 11/7d

One apple, 6/6d

Tablet of toilet soap, 12/6d

2lb of sugar, 16/10d

Dearie me.

C J GRICE

The Pastures

Gorleston

I WOULD like to add to the comments I made in the Mercury (February 6), “Explain why we have to suffer?” Firstly I would like to thank the lady who wrote to inform us that her husband has also been told by our government that his contributions have not been enough to make him legible for any help with day to day living in this country.

We are still waiting to hear from Children's Tax Credit and the Jobcentre Plus to see whether we are going to get help with feeding our children; from January 16 we have had no income and no help from the state and what savings we did have are now down to a bare minimum.

After many phone calls which I hasten to add are not free, our forms have gone to appeal and have been chosen from the many hundreds that are being processed to be “looked into?” We are getting nowhere fast and our children need to be fed, watered and clothed.

I have read that the government in London have invested �2m into a new site for travellers as their old site was to be used for the 2012 Olympics. On this new site they are having luxurious homes built; now who have paid for this, yes, us the good old British taxpayer again.

Justice needs to be done in this country and we have to learn to stand up for our rights. How are we going to manage to pay the extra 2.8pc council tax rise if no wages or government help is being given to those in need? I could go on and on as I feel so angry and let down by this government and country, being British and proud of it is just a distant memory now.

Name and Address withheld

WE are increasingly concerned at the number of elderly pensioners in Great Yarmouth Borough surviving on a basic state pension, supplemented by local housing allowances that is not meeting their rents in full. To keep a roof over their heads, it leaves our most vulnerable pensioners providing the shortfall from their basic pensions of �90.70 per week.

This can only be done by not heating their homes or eating nourishing meals. If any elderly pensioner is faced with this dilemma, they or their relatives, carers, neighbours, can contact us on our website or email us. We seek urgent additional support from our prime minister, Mr Brown. Mr Brown has informed us he will not turn a blind eye to the struggle faced by the elderly trying to survive in Great Yarmouth. Age Concern forecasted that 25,500 elderly pensioners will die nationwide this winter from the cold and lack of good nourishment.

MARK WEATHERSTONE

Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Royal Marines Commando Association

PO Box 155

Great Yarmouth