Letters, April 22

AFTER being charged �2.70 to park for just 32 minutes on the James Paget Hospital car park last week, it’s not surprising that patients are looking for alternatives, after all a trip to the hospital is hardly the choice for a fun day out!

PAULINE LYNCH

Mill Lane

Bradwell

Parked cars are causing a hazard

RE Gorleston’s Jenner Road and the parking problems:

My main concern is that if there was ever a fire on the estate, a fire engine or ambulance would have great difficulty getting though because of the amount of parked cars. I approached a police officer called by another resident regarding parking and his comment was he sympathised as he had to go slow weaving between cars, and that was on a Saturday afternoon.

There is a high volume of cars using Jenner Road not only to get to the James Paget but to get to Brasenose Avenue, cutting out three sets of lights. There is also a blind spot because it is a winding road and with parked cars on one lane, one of the cars has to back up, and not always in a straight line.

This road is also used by parents walking their children to school.

I phoned Persimmon re my concern but got no straight answer. Let’s hope something is done soon, without the “lessons will be learned” as an after thought.

JOAN BUTLER

email

Thwarted in my bid to shop local

LAST week, I decided I needed a new fridge. I searched the internet and found the model I wanted. However, before purchasing, I first decided to go into Great Yarmouth and see if I could find the same fridge available locally for a similar price.

To my amazement, I found the exact fridge I wanted in Hughes Electrical in the Market Place for the same price as I found on the internet and so, wanting to support a local business, I told the salesman I would like to buy said fridge and could he please deliver it to me in Trafalgar Road.

He then informed me there would be a charge of �15 for delivery or I could pick it up at the shop for free. This was not an option as I have no car.

After further questioning, I found out the fridge had to be delivered to the shop from their warehouse in Gorleston, nearly driving past my house on the way, where he could just drop off the fridge.

I pointed this out but the salesman still insisted I would have to pay a �15 delivery charge. I went home and ordered the fridge off the internet with free delivery.

I am all for supporting local business but at the same time the businesses need to support the customers too.

ANGELIQUE SKITMORE

Willows Guest House

Trafalgar Road

Great Yarmouth

No need for this sheer vandalism

I AM writing as someone who has lived in Ormesby all my life (70-plus years).

I would like to inform the persons who have vandalised the fencing protecting the avenue of trees on the left side of the existing footpath leading from Station Road to Scratby, that they are wrong to do so.

The avenue of trees has always been privately owned and was never a public right of way.

We respected this without the need of fences in my childhood. It might also interest them to know, that years ago the public footpath from North Road to Scratby used to cut diagonally over the corner of the field towards the avenue of trees, joining up with the previously mentioned footpath from Station Road.

The farmer diverted that diagonal path to circumvent his field, which was accepted by most of the villagers as reasonable.

My opinion of the action of the persons who have cut wires and destroyed notices, is that they are acting unreasonably, as there is a perfectly good public footpath for them to enjoy without trespassing on the private land of the present owners.

BRENDA SADD

West Avenue,

Great Ormesby

Public inquiry is urgently needed

A VERY educating article in last week’s Mercury by Michael Boon, a man who managed GYPA for years and through the difficult period during the 1980s.

If anyone has an opinion to express with knowledge it must be him. The present Great Yarmouth Port Authority, which should have involved stake holders in the decisions failed in their duty to do this and instead everything was kept very secret and we didn’t get the result we were promised.

To quote Mr Boone’s article when highlighting the Harbour Revision Order IPH is so desperately trying to get, despite many objections:

“What is needed is to halt this order and give local people an opportunity to object if they wish”. . .

“I believe all the transactions need careful unpicking, and then we will see again how the Port Authority has been placed in a position of potentially and incorrectly losing all its statutory powers and rights to the Great Yarmouth Port Company”. . .

Words of someone who had been involved in running our port for many years.

I believe with many others a public inquiry is urgently needed and nothing should be done regarding the HRO, at least until this inquiry has taken place. Why is GYBC so keen to back IPH and assist them to get these powers – a question that badly needs answering? Why isn’t GYBC putting pressure on IPH to put in place the repairs so urgently needed for Gorleston pier? Why was it the Port Authority, who did all the work in getting the outer harbour and gave away so much, only allocated one share which I believe no longer exists?

There are so many “whys” and our council remains so tight-lipped I can only assume they are hiding all the important details from us for some reason.

Brandon Lewis, our MP, now comes up with this classic statement regarding the demise of the cranes: “There is a sound business case for the cranes going.” These are cranes that in two years have just moved from one end of the quay to the other and never done a day’s work. I would describe them as a failure and a bad business decision. Sound business decision indeed. All he knows about the outer harbour is what GYBC have told him. Democracy in action Great Yarmouth style?

DENNIS DURRANT

Brett Avenue,

Gorleston

Arrogance that lacks charity

IN an age where the ideals of equality and respect for diversity should transcend everything, the old bigotries are as active as ever.

I think E Barkhuizen’s word-play is commendable [if mischievous] as I doubt non-Christian religions really meditate on the key events in the life of Christ [Rosary] or recite the Lord’s Prayer. They are more likely to have beads than rosaries.

That said, I have great respect for non-Christian religions and extend my hand in friendship. In particular, I admire his Holiness the Dali Lama and Shintoism, whose proverbs are lessons to us all. For example, “When we look into the heart of another, what we think we see is, in reality, a mirror image of ourselves.” Food for thought about how we view others!

I suggest Barkhuizen et al try rosary meditation, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide. Fundamentalists may be shocked by achieving great insight into the very events of the mysteries.

Fundamentalists talk about the Spanish Inquisition but are conspicuously silent about the persecutions of Catholics under Elizabeth I and Cromwell. Especially, as everything known about the former was published by a now largely discredited source. “People in glasshouses should not throw stones!”

I see worrying similarities between all fundamentalisms irrespective of religion.

One concern about fundamentalism is its unqualified pronouncements about the mercy of Almighty God as though He has limits, whereas Scripture says [Eph 3: 20-21] that Christ’s love is limitless. Marian visionaries, particularly at Fatima, report that injustice and a lack of love towards the poor and vulnerable are worse than weaknesses of the flesh! So much for the fundamentalist obsession with sex.

The paradox for Christian fundamentalism is that Marian visitations are a call to repentance and to amend one’s life according to the teachings of Jesus.

Fundamentalist derision towards ‘what Catholics believe’ is an arrogance which lacks charity and speaks more about fundamentalism than those they deride.

Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ loves each one of us to infinity and laughs at no-one.

ROGER HAYES

Beccles Road

Bradwell

Are we reading the same Bible?

MR Barkhuizen stretches the truth somewhat; bats do fly just as birds do, but Leviticus 11 13 clearly lists the bat among a long list of birds, and not in a list of flying creatures.

Neither do I accept his weak excuse about insects. If the Bible were true, it would say insects have six legs. And then he says that he doesn’t know where I get the reference of four-legged fowls from, which is the normal putdown we expect from an apologist.

Well, I got it from my wife’s copy of the King James authorised version of the Bible and from several on-line sites. Paragraph 11: 20, clearly says “All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you”. Is he reading a different version of the Bible?

Anyway it’s all rubbish to me but I ask all readers to search out these paragraphs and make their own mind up.

DAVE GAHAN

Havelock Road

Great Yarmouth

Witnesses’ Jesus is not our Creator

ON a recent Sunday the Jehovah’s Witnesses held a special event at their Kingdom Hall in Gorleston. Their leaflet uses Christian words and phrases, but those who went to the event should know that this movement, begun in the 19th century, is not Christian and their “Jesus” is not the Bible’s Jesus.

The Witnesses’ Jesus is the archangel Michael, a created being and not God, whose brother is Lucifer (Satan). The false Jesus of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) also has Lucifer as his brother.

However, the Jesus of the Bible is the Creator of the universe, who has existed from eternity (Micah 5:2). The apostle Paul describes Him as “our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). And of Himself Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Moreover the Witnesses say the Holy Spirit is not God, and their “New World [Mis]Translation of the Holy Scriptures” is riddled with error. Plus they claim there is no hell or everlasting punishment for the wicked. But the Bible says the “sexually immoral [people not married to each other who sleep together], sorcerers, idolaters [those who bow down to statues or pictures], and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone [sulphur]”. And “the smoke of their torment [suffering] ascends for ever and ever; and they have no rest day or night” (Revelation 21:8; 14:11).

Safer to study the Bible (New King James Version) yourself, and ask God to teach you His ways, than be led astray.

E BARKHUIZEN

Albemarle Road

Gorleston

A chance to turn the other cheek

I DON’T know if the people of Great Yarmouth are aware, but there has been quite a lot of publicity regarding a comedy show being shown at The Marina Theatre in Lowestoft called Christ on a Bike. This show makes fun of Jesus Christ, the Bible and Christians and Christianity.

Some Christians in Lowestoft are going to protest about it being blasphemous. As a Christian I think we should remember that Jesus Christ spoke that to follow Him would mean we would be laughed at, ridiculed, mocked and accused of many different things.

So I think we should ignore this show and turn the other cheek, and pray for the writer that he would see the real Jesus Christ for himself.

JOHN HUGGINS,

Turin Way,

Hopton on Sea

Swimming record is a disgrace

I READ with absolute dismay in the Yarmouth Mercury on April 8 that Great Yarmouth has one of the highest levels of non-swimmers in English coastal towns.

I am sure this would not have been the case in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when so much hard work and effort was being put in by many dedicated teachers, often with the help of enthusiastic parents, to see that their children learned to swim.

Around six schools in the local area had their own pools on site, which, in the case of primary schools, were designed specifically for teaching young children to swim. Alas, all have now gone! What a disgrace! Literally thousands of children, and mostly in their formative years, were well on their way to becoming confident swimmers.

Being able to swim has so many lifelong benefits to offer within the realms of sport, leisure, health, and not least safety. It appears now that we may have lost out.

RICHARD KERRIDGE

Parkland Drive

Bradwell

Where is money for the cranes?

RE the disaster of the so-called Great Yarmouth Harbour.

We are told the cranes are being taken to Venice so what has happened to the �7m they were worth? Where has that money gone to? Have they actually been sold?

If so, why have we, the tax payers, been left, once more, to pick up the bill?

In this time of serious financial cuts, when we are all feeling the pain, this is an utter disgrace and Eastport should be made to compensate us all as we have been betrayed by them.

These are questions we would all like answered.

D K BUDDEN

Elm Road,

Caister on Sea

So what will we give away next?

GOODBYE, Goodbye, as we wave the Cranes farewell, Goodbye,

As they hang their heads in shame,

Never to return again,

Au revoir, Bon Voyage, Goodbye.

Another waste of council tax money. What land can our council give away next?

And when will Eastport start repairing the surface of Gorleston Pier?

MARLENE HEWITT

Bradwell

Change of status was not unique

HAVING read the article in the Mercury on April 15 bidding “A fond farewell for headteacher”, about Mandy Stanton who retired from Woodlands Primary School at the end of term, I would like to point out a major inaccuracy.

It says: “Woodlands was the only school that did not merge with another when converting to a primary, it was unique in the county.”

Just a few hundred yards from Woodlands school are the other two primary schools that also serve the village of Bradwell.

Neither Homefield Primary, nor my own school, Hillside Primary, merged with another school. We both changed status from first schools to primary schools, at exactly the same time that Woodlands changed from a middle to a primary school.

Three schools in the same village all undergoing the same change of status hardly makes one of them “unique in the county”.

Mrs DEBORAH OLDHAM

Deputy Headteacher

Hillside Primary School

Don’t be fooled by these scams

SEVERAL telephone scams are occuring in our local area.

There is a company offering free electrical checks then they tell you that you need lots of expensive work done. They are asking for “the lady of the house” when they ring, hoping to get a pensioner on their own.

Someone is also calling to say your phone bill has not been paid and is about to be cut off, and when you say you have paid they are asking for the direct debit details.

There is also someone leaving a message to say you have a virus on your computer and to ring them back and when you call you go through to India and get a big bill.

Please be aware and don’t fall for these scams. The oil thieves are also doing the rounds again and Ormesby was hit last week.

P SUTTON

Hemsby

TV show exposed far worse crimes

THE landlady who was upset to see her property on Ross Kemp’s Sky TV programme is surely missing the point.

People trafficking is a horrendous crime and can involve young girls removed from their home abroad and then brought here, abused, raped, forced into prostitution, the list is endless. Sorry, but it’s the victims of such awful crimes that have my sympathy .

Being shocked to see your property on TV surely cannot compare to the desperate life endured by many innocent victims.

I applaud the police for their hard work in trying to bring the criminals to justice.

GLENYS BRIGHT

Email

Stop these filthy habits right now

JUST wondered if anybody else had noticed the dirty habits of some people, especially as we are meant to blow our nose into a tissue and bin it.

I have seen men in the market very close to produce stalls hold one nostril and proceed to blow out of their other nostril and then do the other side. Filthy habit.

Also considering the TB clinic is busy at the James Paget, why do so many men have to spit on the floor. Please stop now.

Mrs SUE GIBBS

Email

I have every faith in this venture

RE concerns at plans for former pub site in village (Mercury, April 15). I would just like to calm any fears that Parish Council chairman Mr Geoff Freeman and the residents of Ormesby (myself being one of them) may have with regards to the future of this site.

The pub had been trading as a restaurant for many years prior to its closure owing to lack of trade; however, the family that purchased the property were offered the entire site and declined as they considered the part actually purchased by them adequate for their needs.

They have a number of Indian restaurants which trade successfully around the country, including two in Great Yarmouth including Planet Papadum on Yarmouth seafront. I am confident they know their business and customer parking requirements.

As for our current planning request for a pair of semi detached houses, these would in my opinion only enhance this site. As this is a conservation area, only an application for full planning was allowed and not outline permission as in most cases.

I am confident this property will be an asset and culinary treat for Ormesby, and with this family’s past trading history I am sure they will make it a great success.

I hope this will alleviate any fears that there may be for this property’s future. If hard work and dedication is anything to go by this venture is bound for success.

PHIL THOMPSON

Yarmouth Road

Ormesby

Well done – Dad would be proud

PLEASE could you pass on my congratulations to all at Gorleston FC on their successful win, which gives them promotion.

I will see them all again this year for dad’s Memorial Match, which is being held for the third year running on July 23. Well done to all.

JULIE MUNRO

Sailor Brown’s daughter

Hardly surprising that they’re gone

UPLIFT not enough? On holiday in Venice next year, shall we see the giant �7m cranes imported from Great Yarmouth? Bradwell and other residents may prefer to approach Gorleston without cranes on the horizon.

Though it’s a pity the idea didn’t produce expected business and employment, but with Harwich down the coast and the better inland infrastructure of the A14, was it so surprising after all?

ROY WALDING

Mill Lane

Bradwell

Let’s catch up for old time’s sake

AT the memorial service to men of the Royal Norfolk Regiment and of the Royal Engineers on April 13, we were honoured by the presence of four 1940s’ veterans who were stationed at the racecourse.

Unfortunately, owing to the activities of the day, I did not get the time to speak to three of these men as much as I would have liked, and would like them to make contact if they so wish.

The names of those involved were (possible spelling errors excepted): John Buillard, John Brackley and Walter Wiseman. I would appreciate it if these men or their relatives would contact me on 01493 377639.

KEN READ

Caister on Sea

We owe such a debt of gratitude

I HAD the honour to take part in a collection on behalf of the Normandy Veterans Association at Rainbow store in Bradwell.

I would like to thank the manager, staff and customers for their help and generosity.

These veterans are now in their eighties and nineties and I feel we owe them and all our servicemen, past and present, a debt of gratitude.

I find it rather sad that of the five large supermarkets in the town (Great Yarmouth) only Rainbow responded.

This is my view and may or may not be the view of the association.

GEORGE HOLMES

Palgrave Road

Great Yarmouth

Share of precept stays the same

I AM writing to explain why the Bradwell Parish Council share of 2011/12 council tax, or precept, was shown to have increased slightly compared with 2010/11, from �48,000 to �49,000, while the larger councils serving this area did not levy any increase at all.

The parish precept actually should have been the same, �49,000, for the last three years, 2009/10, 2010/11, and 2011/12, and the reason that this failed to happen was entirely due to an error by Yarmouth Borough Council, as the authority responsible for collecting the taxes, in 2009/10.

In that year, the parish requested a �49,000 precept, and due to this error, it received �49,949 instead.

This error could not have been corrected at the time, without a disproportionate amount of money having to be spent, and so, in order to compensate parishioners for this precept “overcharge”, Bradwell requested a �48,000, rather than �49,000, precept the following year, 2010/11.

So when a �49,000 precept request was submitted for 2011/12, it looked like an increase from last year – but in actual fact Bradwell, by careful housekeeping, worked within a �49,000 budget for all three years.