Letters

THE Rural North Tenants and Residents Association approached Hemsby Parish Council regarding Speedwatch last month, to discuss the setting-up of the scheme, as we had successfully done in Ormesby. They were very lacklustre in their response.

Hemsby included the item on its agenda, without informing us (the Rural North), and discussed and rejected the scheme, seemingly out of hand, even though many Hemsby residents have contacted us in support of the scheme.

I fully intend to write to the council expressing my deep disappointment at the way it has treated the Rural North, and the total disregard with which the council has treated its electorate.

Some parish councils and other elected bodies have treated the Rural North with disrespect over the last two years, fearing that we are stepping on their toes, or trying to take their jobs away. If they only came along to our meetings, or met us face-to-face, they would realise that we are there for the common good of the community in which we live.

Our priority is, and always will be, social housing and its tenants. However, we cannot ignore the many other problems on our doorstep. When tenants and residents come to us with a problem, we try to help, either in practical support, or by referring them to other bodies.

To say that I am angry and upset by Hemsby Parish Council's attitude is putting it mildly. They have a total lack of understanding on what is happening around them, being more concerned about youngsters smoking in bus shelters.

PETER KIRKPATRICK

Chairman, Rural North Tenants and Residents Association

WORKING in Lowestoft with colleagues who live in that town, I have been interested to hear of Waveney District Council's extension to its household recycling provision.

Whereas we in the Great Yarmouth area have only two bins, Waveney has long provided three, the third being for garden waste. Now they are providing separate doorstep collections for glass and food waste.

Of course we used to have a doorstep box system before the twin-bin one and this allowed us to recycle glass from home. With the introduction of the twin-bin system this facility disappeared. Yes, the twin-bin system is overall an advance, but the withdrawal of the glass collection makes it a case of two steps forward, one back.

Of course, one can always take glass to the bottle banks largely residing in supermarket car parks as long, realistically, as one has access to a car.

And a car is also essential if one is to access the still lone recycling facility in Caister. A considerable journey for those of us living in the south of the borough and at a time when we are being encouraged to use our cars less for a variety of environmental reasons.

I see no urgency on the part of our council to equal the provision in Waveney, leaving me to pose this question at the time of year when we produce more waste than at any other. Just why are we in Yarmouth so rubbish at rubbish?

DARRELL GEORGE

Youell Avenue

Gorleston

EVERY entrance to the cemetery off North Denes Road has a large sign saying “No Dogs”.

I walk through the cemetery on the way to Sainsbury every day, often reading headstones of graves of long ago and recent days.

I have seen graveyard workers cutting grass and keeping grave areas tidy, also picking up litter, often I see beer bottles strewn across graves and broken on paths.

Everyday I see people with dogs not even on a lead, allowing their pets to run riot over graves and in cases fouling the area.

I know we live in a time of no respect, but a graveyard?

D CLARK

North Denes Road

Great Yarmouth

I WOULD like to compliment the people responsible for the Waterways. Walking through there is always an absolute joy - a hidden gem for Great Yarmouth whatever the season.

Sadly, if you go on further to the boating lake it is another story. This area has a total air of neglect with all the once-thriving shrubs choked with weeds, the lake filled with debris and the walls crumbling. Wooden planks from the benches have been torn off and thrown in the water, as well as a complete bench and supermarket trolleys.

The boats are all rusty and sad-looking - some have been untied and now float forlornly around the edge. It is such a shame as many locals look with fond nostalgia on the boating lake and it is still a place that could be popular again. The people responsible for the upkeep of it should either tidy up or sell up.

MOIRA GRANGER

Address withheld

IS it worth the trouble putting recyclables out to be collected?

I live in the flats at Magnolia Green, there are nine flats in each block. We, like all the other blocks on the estate, have two large communal black bins for the rubbish and one large green one for all recyclables. This morning the lorry arrived 8.30am to collect the green bin which is our week for it.

The three men walked across the car park to the compound where the bins are stored. The first man put several black sacks in the black bins which were on the floor in his way, next he wheeled the black bin over to the lorry and he was followed by the second man who pushed the green bin across to the lorry, then the third man followed with the other black bin and they all three tipped them in the same lorry.

After they left the block I live in I saw them do it again at the next block, so is it worth us sorting the stuff out each week? This is not the first time I have seen them do this.

C LEE

Magnolia Green

Gorleston

AFTER so many years of disappointment and decline, isn't it great to see things moving! We're still seem to be getting the odd reader's letter in the Mercury doubting either the wisdom or the reality of the Outer Harbour; perhaps some people should actually pop down to the South Denes and see what has been done already and the very obvious piles of granite rock waiting their turn to form the core of the new structure.

I don't know what those people thought Plan B was if the town hadn't been successful? It doesn't really bear much thinking about. A thousand new jobs will make a real difference in any body's book.

We are so lucky at this moment in the town's history - 800 years on from the King John Charter - let's hope that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will finally announce in 2008 the large casino designation for the town as that project will create hundreds more jobs and secure others in the holiday industry.

And let's have a decision by the Boundary Committee in the spring to signal a return to local decision making by 2010 with a new Great Yarmouth and Waveney Unitary Council running all local affairs.

MICK CASTLE

Borough Councillor for Yarmouth Central and Northgate and Labour Spokesman for Regeneration and Tourism

I WOULD like to thank and give my warmest gratitude to the day and night staff at the ICU ward in James Paget Hospital when I spent a month with them last year, without their love and dedication I would not be writing this now. You are all the greatest in my eyes, and I hope everyone else's. Looking forward to the second anniversary and many more.

Thanks once more, for where would we be without you!

STEVE WHALL

Ex patient

THIS is an appeal to school students. Have you been shown the Al Gore film on climate change recently in your school? If so, did your teacher make an attempt to explain where the film exaggerated the facts as set out in the judgement of the High Court?

Straight Teaching is a campaign to ensure that students are presented with balanced, accurate information. That is why we supported school governor Stuart Dimmock in his case against the government. Our website, www.straightteaching.com, tells you more about us and how we would like you to help us in our battle. Please log on and let us know of your experiences. Together we can ensure fairness in the classroom.

COUNCILLOR DEREK TIPP

Straight Teaching Campaign

MY name is Ryan Mather and I have been trying to find my sister and I am contacting the Mercury as I know she used to live in Great Yarmouth.

Her name before marriage was Justine Mather and she grew up with me in the West Midlands in a town called Kingswinford, but we lost contact over 15 years ago and I would really love to find her as she is my sister.

She was born on March 15, 1973 and she had a husband called Trevor and two children, a boy and a girl.

I have tried a variety of other methods, but I can only assume this is the best way, as I know she lived in Yarmouth for quite some time, so would have had friends and such there. I hope that someone who knows her can contact me, so I can regain contact with her?

I would be overjoyed.

RYAN MATHER

E-mail: morbid_slay3r@hotmail.com