Inaccuracies in signs

WHILE travelling around the town I have been drawn to some inaccuracies and I am concerned, that if not addressed, will continue with disproportionate consequences. This is with regard to road signs and the naming of buildings both new and existing.

Firstly, a green street sign that reads Fish Wharf written as two words, this should be Fishwharf written as one word. Secondly there is another green street sign that reads North Gate Street, similarly appearing as two words, so written it implies the north end of Gate Street; again it should read as Northgate as a single word. Both these have been be traditionally written as single words in Great Yarmouth.

Also the “Cobholm and Lichfield Health & Community Centre”. Lichfield is not an area of Yarmouth and in my opinion the building should have been named “Cobholm and Southtown Health & Community Centre”. Southtown is incidentally also one word just in case someone is thinking of renaming it as South Town.

At the other end of Southtown on Southtown Common, I note the pavilion there, has been renamed “Claydon” Pavilion. I know Claydon is an electoral ward and in my view, Claydon ward could not and should not extend to contain Southtown Common - and probably doesn't sit easily with the residents there.

In the past I remember there have been such typographical errors in street signs such as Admiralty Road was spelt Admirality, Artillery Square was spelt Artillary and Catalpa Way was spelt Catalpha.

May I suggest that road signs and building names within the borough are put before the Great Yarmouth Local History and Archaeological Society Committee for our perusal and opinions, in the same way that plans to listed buildings are put to us, so to regulate and maintain the historical and traditional status quo. Future generations and new settlers will otherwise assume that such mistakes are correct and then the etymological value of some of our town's words will be lost along with some of our history.

C BOULT

Great Yarmouth Local History and Archaeological Society

MY heart goes out to Gary Chaplin, who featured on the front of The Mercury, September 25. Here is a decent man, who works hard and is trying to raise a son yet the borough council will not provide him with accommodation. Sadly Gary, the problem is you work; if you went on benefits, they would bend over backwards to help you. Outrageous, but true. Gone are the good old days when you deserved help because you work, they no longer exist. Shame on this Labour government!

KYM ROBSON

Caister

THE Mercury headline "Path near the Lookout Sold" hopefully is not correct and is confirmed in the narrative by the Borough Solicitor, by stating the council was aiming to impose a compulsory purchase order, unfortunately to then sell it to Mr David Fish.

The article poses several questions. How can a developer continue with building on land, not in their ownership? Why is the piece of land not being offered for sale to the public? I informed the council three years ago that I would be interested in the purchase, if it was ever offered for sale. I asked to be kept informed, but no response.

It is not "an odd piece of land," quote by Mr. Skinner. It IS a Public Right of Way and should remain so.

As for Mr Fish's statement that a lot of people think he has done a good job and is trying to improve a conservation area, the mind boggles. Yes, the builder has made an excellent job of the construction, but as for the design, ugh! Just because there are a few flints included in some of the walls, does not make it suitable for a conservation area. It is a complete anachronism, being constructed on the end of a row of some of the oldest cottages in Gorleston and overlooking Darby's Hard.

Before work commenced, my wife had correspondence with Mr Fish and was assured the new dwelling would incorporate "as many of the Old Smokehouse features as possible". This has not been done. The new building was supposed to follow the lines of the old building, which would have enabled people to see downstream from the new Lookout - once again, not done.

I am very disturbed about the way it has come about.

M L DODD

High Road

Gorleston

I HAVE been following the letters by Mr Graham Plant and Mr Bernard Williamson about the TV screens. As a Yarmouth resident I saw the Market Place screen when it was running. It was rarely being watched the many times I have walked past it. The content always seemed to be national news or a continuous loop of the same boring few adverts.

I would like to say to Mr Williamson, yes there is a recession going on in the country. This is no time to be throwing good money after bad and wasting electricity. Mr Plant's reply to your first letter seems very clear enough. How many more thousands of pounds would the council have to waste to run the screens full time year after year? Would this mean an increase in council tax we pay?

A ROBINSON

Beaconsfield Road,

Great Yarmouth

READING Mr Bernard Williamson's letter last week I feel he is very determined to keep the screens running. I struggle to pay my increasing bills each month and wish to have not a penny spent towards these screens. I could quite happily get by without watching them. Perhaps Mr Williamson would like to ask each year to show the annual running costs to be displayed on screen for us all to see.

Mrs L DENT

Caister Road

Great Yarmouth

CAN someone please explain to me why it is thought there will be an increase in traffic to Great Yarmouth? It can't be the new outer harbour? I can't be the only one who thinks its going to be a white elephant? The residents of Yarmouth will be left to pick up the pieces! Why would a ship just not go to Felixstowe? - probably half an hour difference - and then from there straight to the A14 to anywhere in the country? Oh but no, the lorries will come to Yarmouth and get behind a landau, tour bus, road train, old Betty crossing Yarmouth Way. Which way would you go?

D T LEGGETT

Horsley Drive

Gorleston

I VISITED the Central Library in Great Yarmouth recently for the exhibition and although it is different, I fail to see with the exception of a load of new computers, where all that money has been spent. Okay, there is some structural alteration, new furniture etc a lick of paint here and there. I understand the number of pictures allowed to be hung in the Galleries has been reduced by about 30pc. I would have thought that with the amount of money they had to spend it would have been better to have found somewere closer to the centre of town, maybe the old post office opposite the town hall instead of spending it on an out of town facility that has virtually no “passing trade”, surely necessary for a Central library. On my only visit, I tried to borrow a book but all the automatic terminals were broken down and the entire staff were dealing with the problem, leaving no-one to manually check books out. I have always believed the main function for a library is to lend books.

H G PERRY

Gorleston

I AM writing on behalf of my grandad who is disabled. I was disgusted to hear that when on his way back from his weekly exercises, on September 16, he had to wait for over an hour for a bus that had facilities for him to get on. In the end he had to pay for a taxi to come and pick him up and take him home as no buses had a ramp. This then cost him �5 whereas if he had been able to get on a bus it would not have cost him anything as he had his free bus pass.

I can understand he may have had to wait for a little while for a bus with a ramp to come along, however, there must be more buses round Great Yarmouth that have the facilities for disabled people to get out and about - otherwise this would be discriminating against disabled people.

This service is terrible considering people are given free bus yet they are unable to use them as the buses are unsuitable. I believe First buses should invest in either more buses that have facilities for the disabled or put more out on service. The government want us to use public transport so surely having more buses with the disabled facilities would therefore be better in the government's eyes and cut down on CO2 gases.

Miss K SHELDRAKE

email

MY grandson is trying to set up a local branch of a Chelsea Football Club supporters club, arranging match tickets and travel to the games. Will anyone interested in joining please contact Joe Tyler at www.easternblues.co.uk or telephone 07709 539273.

As you will appreciate this is not an easy task starting from scratch. My grandson has spent a lot of his own money getting cards and flyers printed, and hours setting up a website. He gets up at 6am on his day off and goes to Norwich station to try and see fans travelling to games, and is very committed to trying to get this up and running. Chelsea FC will not help unless you have at least 60 members.

SHIRLEY CROSBIE

email

I HAVE been in touch with John Cotton IEng IHIE Highway Engineer, Norfolk County, Planning & Transportation (Operations) who stated: “I can confirm that Burnt Lane, Gorleston, is regarded as a 'stand alone' junction just off the junction itself. That is why the markings are different on each of the other roads you mention. That means that anyone exiting Burnt Lane must give way to traffic on or exiting the roundabout.”

His department is checking to see if there is anything they can do to improve the situation.

JOHN CALTHORPE

email

MY name is Barry Williams and I am writing to see if you might be able to help me find relatives.

I was born in Bath in 1944 and came to America with my mother in 1946 leaving my father, who was a British Marine, behind for recuperation from TB which he contracted during the war. He did recuperate and joined us two years later. He left behind one sister whose name is Doris (Williams) Butters. She had three children: Andrew, Pauline and Christine. We've never met or corresponded. Dad used to write faithfully every Sunday to his parents and probably his sister. He returned once in 1963 to visit his aging parents but we never made the trip nor did any of the family come here.

I know that Andrew Butters, as an adult, moved to Australia and Doris and her husband followed, but then returned to England at some point. Because I don't know the married names of Pauline or Christine I am stuck. I know one of them had twins.

Doris, if she is still alive, would be 91 or 92. The only address I can find is for a Mr and Mrs C Butters, 26 Glen More Avenue, Caister-On-Sea, Norfolk, England. This address was taken from a handwritten paper with information for a security clearance for me in the mid 1960s.

I would love to be able to connect with any of them and wondered if you, through your newspaper, might be able to help. I know it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack!

BARRY WILLIAMS

b.mwilliams@charter.net

MAY I take this opportunity to thank people through the Mercury who helped us with our engagements last week.

Firstly, on Thursday, for the very first time we took 100 Senior citizens to Cambridge on a Mayor's Day Out. This could not have been possible without the support of Age Concern who put us in touch with local organisations to invite their members to attend this day out with us. Local businesses helped subsidise this trip and I would personally like to thank them. We initially started with one coach but with their kind generosity enabled us to take two coaches, meaning more people. They were: J & H Bunn, PKF, Model Village, Sidegate Motors, DP Leisure, Potters Leisure Resort, Great Yarmouth Lions, Haven Rotary, Great Yarmouth Rotary, First East and Mr Jimmy Jones.

We were met by the Mayor of Cambridge at the Botanical Gardens and in the afternoon we were shown around the fabulous Kings College. I hope everyone really enjoyed the day and I hope this tradition will continue for many years to come.

Secondly, on Friday, we held a coffee morning at the Town Hall for Macmillan Cancer, and it was fantastic to see so many people come to have a coffee at the Town Hall - sponsored by Starbucks. We raised �623. Thank you to all those who came and supported us.

All in all it was a fantastic week and it just goes to show how many kind and thoughtful people there are in the borough who do so much to help others. Keep up the good work.

Cllr TONY SMITH

Mayor of the Borough of Great Yarmouth

I WILL start by thanking the great many people, local and as far away as Singapore, who have given their support to saving our harbour. Two prominent people, one in business, one in offshore, agree what is happening with our inner port and the outer harbour is detrimental to the ratepayers of Great Yarmouth Borough; their remarks concur with what the general public have been saying to us.

The dockers departed for the final time at lunchtime last Friday, then the casuals took over after lunch discharging a fertiliser ship on East Quay in the inner harbour. I understand with no “Bobcat” driver available back they went to shovelling (Victorian era here we come). This sort of thing will ruin the brilliant reputation our Port built up through many decades. It is not good - for anyone.

Our biggest disappointment is the loss of the wind energy sector now that Harwich has elected to make Bathside Bay a wind energy centre, instead of a container terminal for which they had previously obtained planning consent. So Lowestoft will be the main service base and Harwich the main construction base I fear, both good sources of employment which should have been here.

Decommissioning, now there is a word that makes ears prick up and thoughts of good paid work coming to Great Yarmouth. But let's face facts; because of the excessive space a container port requires, at minimum profit to the borough, where is the space for the massive steel platform structures to go?

So employment for wind turbines and decommissioning of North Sea platforms will not be coming here but to other ports.

Great Yarmouth Port Authority is still the head landlord so why is the board allowing EastPort to digress from the promises of 2007.

To close, we have a new email address more fitting for the job in hand and easy to remember by the many people now interested in supporting us. You can contact us on saveourport@btinternet.com

JOHN L COOPER

Honorary Freeman of the Borough

Ex Port Welfare Officer

ends