Support our town - stop whinging

Re all the critical letters in last week’s Mercury.

What do these unhappy people want to make Great Yarmouth an even better place to live in? Money is being poured into the town with investments in roads, now a start at reviving and opening some shops. Next on the list is the advent of cruise ships coming to town.

We have heard moans and groans for years about the outer harbour not being used, and now that efforts are being made to increase its use that seems to e wrong!

I suggest these whinging, half glass empty moaners take a good look at what we have here and perhaps get out more so they can support the town and efforts made by others to enrich our already Great borough

Have they thought of offering themselves as prospective councillors so that we could benefit from their input and hard work? How about joining our Civic Society and helping to promote pride instead of constantly being negative and downbeat.

BRENDA TAYLOR

St George’s Road,

Great Yarmouth

Town has visitors from across world

In regards to the cruise liners visits, yes, Yarmouth needs to tidy up but this is in the hands of our councillors, complain to them, you elected them and if you don’t like the way things are done choose to elect somebody you think will do the job right.

If you didn’t vote then don’t complain.

Yarmouth has much to offer history-wise, the town has half the royal coat of arms for providing more ships than any other port for the battle of Sluys, we decided to cut a king’s head off in Yarmouth and one of the most famous admirals was associated with the town.

A huge amount of history associated with the town and if you look at the visitors books for various museums etc you should see we have visitors from all over the world, I know from being volunteer on the Lydia Eva.

Our visitors book has people from as far away as Australia and many other places. We can get tourism all year round; it is up to the people to make it happen, and keep our hotels booked up and cash flowing into the town then the empty shops will be taken up.

I lived in York for many years and we had the same problem. I went back last year for my 80th birthday with my family and the place is packed; everywhere busy and new hotels being built by major chains but they do have a different approach to tourism.

So in the words of oddball let’s give up on these negative vibes.

IVOR HALSEY

Email

999 services gave wonderful care

There has been such bad media coverage of our East of England Ambulance Service and the delays, which have caused serious consequences.

I would like to take the opportunity to say tank you to ours for the fast and prompt attention they gave to a dear friend of ours on December 30, who had been taken ill and fallen.

We could not gain entry because her key was in her door, so after a few minutes I rang 999 and explained the situation. The police were there very quickly, followed by the paramedics, and I have nothing for praise for both of these essential emergency services. Their kindness and care was wonderful.

She was found to be seriously ill with pneumonia, a broken wrist and other serious problems. Their prompt care saved her life. She is still in hospital and is greatly improved.

So we would like to say a big thank you to these wonderful people. Where would we be without them?

J BUDDEU

Elm Road,

Caister

Footpath’s leaves are very slippery

Is there anyone who could help in getting the pathways cleared over Bridge Road in Gorleston, also the old railway line footpath.

It is the same old thing every year. Once the leaves have fallen off they are just left there to rot and when wet they get very slippery. Great Yarmouth gets a clean up but Gorleston is just left out.

Doesn’t anyone monitor the highways and footpaths? Sorry to be a pain but elderly people use these footpaths as well as lots of children and their parents too.

Perhaps local councillors might want to take a look and take action?

BOB JOHNSON

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Do readers know anything of town?

Here we go again. Negativity abounds in Great Ysrmouth. Take these two quotes from last week.

“Cruise ships? I am still laughing...” and “Town needs a couple of decades to get ready...”

Do readers actually know anything about the town? Do they visit the award-winning museums, the varied churches, go to the many advertised talks, go on the guided walks around town, do anything on Heritage Open days, use the diverse restaurants, go to the theatre for plays or shows, ride the world-renowned rollercoaster etc.

Well done to the email from Mark Fellgett for pointing out many of the attractions of the town.

I am sure the Great Yarmouth Tourist Board, in conjunction with the many businesses who work hard to provide for our tourist season will offer tremendous opportunities for the visitors to enjoy the town.

JACKIE COLE

Email

Need to fill the town’s empty shops

I am writing concerning some of the empty shops in Great Yarmouth.

I noticed the British Home Stores site is to become a Poundstretcher. If we can get the other empty shops filled it would be great.

The other thing I am concerned about is the people still begging around town. If we can get these people off the streets and the shops full it will make Yarmouth a greater place to live and work.

P TURNER

St Margaret’s Way,

Fleggburgh

Put an end to the Brexit bickering

Belated I may be, but Brexit for us is a necessity. The burden of the European Economic Community is too great for us to cope with.

Nearly 50 years of it has affected everything we have. Since January 1, 1973 we have had to relinquish by cutbacks a number of our projects.

We were not a suitable candidate from the start. Being a Monarchy we should never have entered into such a community being already committed to our own National Health Service. The burden we had was too heavy for us to endure.

What would help now is an end put to this bickering amongst ourselves and aiming for the end target. Let’s get the Great back into our title.

JACK DYE

Gonville Road,

Gorleston

Sigh… for brighter news learn of PJ

When the local news is becoming just too much to take, (the lady unable to close her kitchen drawer, the man who has to walk up to half a mile to post a letter - you know the sort of thing), I often turn to the national press to give me some degree of comfort.

There I am heartened by the news of Tessa Jowell confronting her cancer, the Tattooist of Auschwitz whose daily mantra was ‘If you woke up in the morning, it was a good day’, and perhaps above all by the story of PJ.

PJ is a cuckoo, tagged in June 2016 in Suffolk and now recorded as having begun its 4,000 mile journey from Angola, it’s wintering location, to Gabon and then back to these shores. Last year PJ returned here on April 29.

The bird’s current progress can be tracked on www.bto.org

Summer-is-a-comin-in.

MIKE SPRAGG

Collingwood Road,

Great Yarmouth

Be thankful for what we have

I wanted to write to express my annoyance at people who continuously moan about the state of the town and the empty shops.

People need to remember that shops have closed because as a country we have had financial difficulties over the years and this has resulted in companies closing.

Yes, it would be nice to see more of the empty shops filled with other retailers but let’s praise the retailers who are coming to town. We have Pandora, F Hinds, Peacocks, Edinburgh Wool, New Look, Debenhams, Palmers, Claire’s, River Island, Superdrug, Store Twenty One, Kerrison Toys, Argos and yes, Poundland. Plus many charity shops ,coffee shops, restaurants and so many more shops which I haven’t mentioned.

We have seen Victoria Arcade fill with shops which had to move due to the fire on Regent Road.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see the town’s empty properties filled with more clothes shops, shoe shops, toy shops and department stores which in the long term would create so many jobs in the town centre but businesses need to make a profit to survive in these difficult times.

Yes, we may have another Poundstretcher coming to town but let’s be grateful that more jobs are going to be created and a huge shop is going to be filled.

Let’s remember what makes this town great and not get hung up on negatives.

Let’s support the shops which are here, support local shop owners and shop there.

NYREE OKEKE

Facebook

Wasn’t Common council-owned?

Mr Botwright’s comments about Belton Common were spot on and comprehensive.

I can remember the girls from the local riding school showing me the area in about 1960. Now it is spoilt by the chalets planted next door.

What next? Caravans on Silbury Hill or chalets around Stonehenge?

Yet another interesting thing is the area is steeped in interesting facts; Colonel Dashwood who lived in/owned Caldecott Hall was in charge of the dad’s army in the area and has a road named after him in Belton.

Finally, I got the impression that Belton Common was owned by the public/council and they even put concrete tank traps on it to stop travellers parking there although others say it was to stop sand being removed from the Common to replace the beach washed away at Gorleston.

M DIMMACK

Butt Lane,

Burgh Castle

Theatre Hitchcock Day excellent

A big thank you to the staff at St George’s Theatre in Great Yarmouth for an excellent Hitchcock Day last Saturday, January 27.

Seeing old films on TV is one thing but having the opportunity to see two Hitchcock films on a large screen, in the company of other Hitchcock enthusiasts and a film expert, is altogether a different experience.

Lecturer in film studies, Nigel Herwin lead the sessions. With a relaxed and approachable style, Nigel gave just the right amount of background and technical information for his audience, who in turn felt comfortable to contribute their ideas and opinions.

The catering staff at St George’s café did us proud; providing our group with an excellent ‘High Tea’ between screenings.

The whole day was inspiring, entertaining, and a whole lot of fun! If you weren’t there, you missed a real treat!

St George’s is a wonderful venue. I am looking forward to seeing Morgan and West: Time Travelling Magicians on February 7 and learning about magic acts from Victorian times through to modern times.

STEPHEN LAVAN

Caister on Sea

Negativity isn’t helping our town

I was dismayed to read the several rather sneering and negative letters (January 26) about the cruise ships coming to Great Yarmouth.

It is so easy to do this with a careless and pseudo clever abandon, which refuses to see any positive implications of these events for the good of the town.

I contrasted them with the positive and affirming one from Mark Felgett, who did see the inherent possibilities,

I have friends in Norwich who often happily visit the town and cannot understand why people want to completely knock and criticise it at every opportunity. Yes, there are undoubtedly problems but the town has always tried to think outside the box and offer more than just a seaside destination.

Our seafront indeed has a lot to offer with its wide spacious vista and traditional entertainments. We also have a unique cultural and historic offer, with many interesting museums and a plethora of annual festivals.

I agree with Graham Plant that these envisaged trips need to be well managed and every stop pulled out to make the best of the town for these visitors. Along with the Air Show, it is shaping up to be a busy and successful summer and anyone who glances down Regent Road in these months, will usually see a mass of visitors.

So all you Eeyores give us all a break and learn to be a tad more positive with your comments and if you cannot find anything more pleasant to say about a possible and welcome resurgence of the town, don’t bother at all because this town needs unhelpful negativity without any constructive criticism, like the proverbial hole in the head.

Seaside towns all over the country have similar problems and address them in different ways and Great Yarmouth is no exception, so we need to get behind proactive initiatives which will bring in visitors and additional revenue wholeheartedly.

So before you rupture yourself V Savory with your laughter, it would be far more appreciated if you could be pleased at these ventures and not denigrate them with insulting and vacuous comments.

JUDITH A DANIELS

Winifred Road,

Cobholm

Villagers lives at risk from drivers

I was appalled but not at all surprised to read in our recent Parish News magazine, how many people are speeding through Ormesby St Margaret.

A total of 113 drivers leaving the village and 301 entering the village all exceeded 42mph in a 30mph zone; caught by the community speed watchers in just seven days, before Christmas. This is unacceptable.

Long have we suffered in Ormesby St Margaret with people choosing to drive like maniacs. I happen to live in the 40mph zone – the speeds we have to endure this end of the village are even faster, some drivers must be clocking 60mph. This problem will only continue to get worse with the new properties being built in the area, bringing yet more traffic through our village which is already used as a rat run.

Show some respect to our village, our children and families and slow down - you all know who are - shame on you. The speed restrictions are there for a reason and you are thoughtlessly putting lives in danger and spoiling our lovely village.

H FORD

Ormesby St Margaret

Need to attract the larger stores

While it is good news that the former BHS has found a new retailer, why does, what used to be “Great” Yarmouth, attract so many low budget stores, that we already have in town and outskirts?

Why is it necessary to quadruple the amount of discount stores which sell basically the same merchandise? How many more of these do we need?

Will this result in us having to change the town title to state “welcome to Great Yarmouth, the discount store capital of the UK”?

Poundstretcher obviously must feel that there is enough business to open this store knowing there are five other shops of similarity. This will not create more business for the town as all these stores offer the same products, it will be the same customers just choosing to use that one instead of one of the existing stores.

What Yarmouth needs is a variety of shops not duplicates of what we already have. We need brands and encourage self owned businesses into our market place.

Is there a reason why we are not attracting any other type of store to our town?

Are rent prices too high or is it because Yarmouth has lost its appeal? Surely we need to compete with Norwich and try and attract the larger stores into Yarmouth so we can get our community back into our town to spend their hard-earned cash.

GAIL LAIN

Sharpe Way,

Ormesby

Thanks to knight in shining armour

Tuesday evening about 9.30pm I was on my way home on my mobility scooter. I had just passed Offords in Caister when a wheel came off the scooter. Unfortunately I couldn’t fix it, but a knight in shinning armour came to my rescue. He managed to get the scooter down the road, then came back and gave me a lift to my house and then got the scooter into my front yard.

He even put the cover over the scooter for me. He was an absolute hero, so kind of him to go out of his way for me.

I believe he said his name was David Lee, so, many thanks David I really did appreciate your help.

ALISON GREEN

email

Move out of town if you don’t like it!

I was absolutely disgusted at the comments made by some of your readers about the report on cruise liners stopping off at Great Yarmouth during the summer.

Why on earth do these moaners live in Yarmouth and its surroundings if they hate it so much? Why have they not left the town and allowed people who do want to live here get on with making the place a better one to live in?

Everybody has choices in life; you choose to get married, you choose to buy a car instead of catching a bus; and you also choose to live here. If you don’t like it you have every right to choose to move away.

So many people complain about the mess and rubbish, which sometimes can be pretty bad on the streets, but I have yet to see a passer-by stoop down and pick something up before dropping it into a wastebin!

If the cruise liner people had read the comments and those on the Mercury’s Facebook page I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned around and said “We aren’t going there, why should be take our passengers into a place that is a hovel?” But it isn’t!

I’m having trouble writing this in plain English because I want to swear. Stop whinging about everything, get off your backsides and do something about it. Stand for the council if you want to have your say, or join or form a community group to improve the town.

Enough said!

Mrs V WILLIAMSON

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