Letters, December 4 2015

I write this letter in response to the letter from Chris King of Lords Lane, Bradwell.

As I am one of your borough councillors for Bradwell South, I think I have a duty to respond and clarify the current position regarding the issues we all face here in Bradwell regarding housing and the drainage system.

Since being elected 18 months ago I have continued to expose issues relating to the out-dated drainage system in this area including the pumping station on Morton Crescent.

I have, with help from the Mercury, The Bradwellian, and BBC Radio Norfolk in a live broadcast, brought to the attention of Anglian Water the serious issues we face here in this village .

I collected letters from residents who have been affected by this problem, photographs, a letter from the head of Hillside School, and personally passed these over to Anglian Water officials in a meeting with the parish council.

During the meetings we have had so far with Anglian Water they have said that Morton Crescent pumping station is at full capacity at times of heavy rainfall, this is the first time I understand this has been said, and they did say around £2m should be earmarked for the surrounding area and the pumping station in the near future, and we are on the list for this work.

Since living here all my life, I know of the issues we face, truly unacceptable for everyone who is affected. We have had situations where schoolchildren have walked through sewage on their way to school on Lords Lane and Church Lane. This is unacceptable for the ratepayers of our community.

Over the past 18 months I have seen many people who have been affected by this issue, people’s homes and gardens which have been flooded with sewage, including my own. The last incident we had on Primrose Way I personally pumped out Falkland Surgery for two hours and prevented a couple’s house from being flooded opposite the surgery.

As I am your borough councillor yes, I do have some powers to represent the people. I take this position very seriously indeed. If I had the power to get Anglian Water to get their act together I would have done this the first day after my election.

Anyone who wants to build houses has the right to connect to the public sewer, Anglian Water tells them where the best suitable manhole is and it’s done. Great Yarmouth Borough Council has limited powers at times to control this. Believe you me this is very very frustrating and very wrong at times.

When developments come to planning, if Anglian Water and all the other various departments accept the proposal it is then very difficult to stop it going ahead, we could on occasions stop it, but then if it goes to appeal and the council lose, it is a financial cost to the council.

On occasions it is sent to the Government for a decision and the housing minister.

This person is our MP Brandon Lewis and the Government he represents wants to build thousands of houses.

I will continue meeting with all concerned in the hope I can to get this investment for our village. The red tape makes this whole process a hard job, but I certainly listen to anyone who contacts me regarding anything, that’s my job.

Anyone who has any problems please contact me. My contact details are on the borough council web site.

CARL ANNISON

Bradwell South And Hopton

UKIP borough councillor

Drivers must be more patient

Regarding the letter from Brian Callan in the Mercury, November 27. I agree with all the points he has made except when he says about saving five or six minutes getting to Yarmouth by driving faster and making stupid overtaking manoeuvres.

By my calculations driving along the Acle Straight at 70mph as opposed to 60mph you would save one and a half minutes (based on ten miles which is near enough for this purpose). Driving at 80mph you would save two and a half minutes.

That is if you could drive on a completely clear road which obviously you can’t.

I think given the usual conditions on that road you would be lucky to save two minutes. I hope after reading this letter some drivers will become more patient and realise it is not worth risking overtaking for such a small saving of time.

KEITH MIDDLETON

Silver Gardens

Belton

Spending before cash to complete

Re last week’s Mercury report on the start of work on the new Margaret Chadd House hospice site.

Firstly, may I congratulate them on raising over £1m so far, but what really worries me is that they are spending donated money before they have secured enough (another £3m) to complete the project.

Anyone involved with capital projects really needs to have all the funds in place before starting to spend as there is a possibility that future fundraising could fail; the goodwill and giving of generous people coming to nothing with a loss of money spent without security

BRENDA TAYLOR

Email

Our thanks to two lovely girls

May I through your letters page thank two lovely young ladies who came to our rescue on Monday, November 23.

My husband had just been for an eye test and had drops in his eyes which had made his vision a little blurred. As we were coming home he came off the edge of the kerb in his electric wheelchair. He got stuck and I could not move him.

These two lovely girls came and held him while I moved the wheelchair. They then helped me get him back in his wheelchair.

Thank you so much for coming to our rescue, I don’t know how long we would have been there had you not stopped. I hope you were not late for any appointments.

There should be more people like you in the world. Thank you.

JACKIE and TERRY STUDLEY

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Book proceeds to Macmillan

I would like to thank Sue Patterson and David Howard of Palmers for giving me the opportunity to go in the store on November 20 and 29 with my local history books.

I will be at Beighton Village Hall on December 12 from 10am to noon where there will be a table top sale and raffle; the proceeds from which will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. I will be there having a sale with my books, the latest one being Beighton & Moulton St Mary Remembered. Everyone is welcome to come along to meet up and have a yarn.

SHEILA HUTCHINSON

Colman Avenue,

Stoke Holy Cross

WI Fayre is in the Church Hall

The Caister WI Christmas Fayre is at the Church Hall on the High Street, Caister (next to the dry cleaners) tomorrow, December 5, from 9am to noon, not as advertised in the village Voice magazine at the Council Hall.

We are kindly supported by the East of England Co-op with their Bringing your CommuniTEA together sponsorship, helping us raise funds for local good causes.

We also have green token collection boxes in the Caister, Beresford Road (Newtown) and Gorleston Co-op stores until the end of January, so please visit the stores and vote for Caister WI.

Also we would like to give a very big thank you to Plunketts store in Tan Lane, Caister, for very generously giving sponsorship towards our December meeting refreshments. The more people who help us, the more we can help others.

RUTH BOND-HOLLAND

President,

Caister on Sea WI

Library set to host Twirlers

Why didn’t the Twirlers appear during the switching-on of the Christmas lights in Gorleston High Street earlier this month?

In response to the letter from William Rose, Harbour Radio was also disappointed the Twirlers did not appear on the stage. Unfortunately the organiser of the event was not aware they had turned up.

There had been a process set up whereby all the acts/dance groups to appear were to register they had arrived at a designated and pre-arranged meeting point. Harbour Radio had also arranged for the children’s groups performers to wait in the nearby library to protect them from any adverse weather conditions and stay warm. In fact, one of the children’s groups actually performed in the library.

We understand the frustration and disappointment of the children and their parents and friends, but a process had been put in place to ensure the celebration went smoothly and all groups/bands/acts were made aware of this when they were confirmed to appear.

NEVV MOORE

Harbour Radio

Light up Straight and keep single

As a professional driver, I agree with some of the comments of your correspondent Brian Callan last week. The A47 Acle Straight does not necessarily need dualling and is not unsafe. It is some of the drivers who are unsafe.

For instance, following someone travelling at 40mph can lead to frustration when the speed limit is 60mph; I am sad to say it encourages some drivers to take chances to overtake, particularly when they see the road ahead on their side has nothing in front of and a long line of traffic is being held up.

Why can’t there be a minimum speed on the Acle Straight, say of 50mph? That would mean traffic flows freely and evenly.

And yes, lights all the way down the Straight, the entire eight-mile stretch illuminated. On the A1 in Nottinghamshire there was a particularly hazardous road crossing connecting two halves of a village; this is heavily illuminated throughout the night, almost like driving in daytime so hazards can be seen more clearly. A 50mph speed limit is imposed on this four-mile stretch and there are four speed cameras.

We never read in the Mercury’s Cases in Court on Page of any drivers being done for speeding on the Acle Straight? Is it ever checked or monitored? That is a deterrent to speed.

Not every accident can be blamed on the fact the road is not dualled. There are accidents on single carriageways through the Great Yarmouth area but no-one calls for those to be dualled. let’s be sensible and get a quick fix that would not cost millions of pounds and would be operationable with a year or two.

We need a solution now, and not be put on a list for 10 years’ time.

Name and Address withheld

Sister’s illness undiagnosed

My family and I have lived in Great Yarmouth for five years now and we are all registered at a surgery. Most of the time when we go for a check in the surgery or we need to see a doctor we are sent to see a nurse or another medical person, which is understandable, as there are lots of people waiting long hours to get see a doctor.

Most times when I have been visiting this surgery I have been deeply unsatisfied with the service I and my family do get. However this time I do not want to let it go like this.

An incident happened to my younger sister who is 15. She caught a cold and had temperature, but when she start feeling more ill, and could not eat because she kept being sick, she went to see a doctor in our surgery. She was seen by a nurse who listened to what the symptons were.

She was told by the nurse if she wanted to stop vomiting she was not to eat or drink anything!

Next day she went to the James Paget Hospital as she could not bear a pain on the right side of her stomach.

In hospital they checked her temperature which was 38.5 and they said it was normal for her, and also repeated what the surgery nurse had not, don’t eat or drink to stop the vomiting.

The third time, when she went with me and mum to see a doctor in our GP surgery she was seen by a doctor, and his diagnosis was shingles.

I asked why they were not taking blood or urine to test but his reaction was to laugh and say he did not need to do any tests, it was enough just to look at her and so he was 99pc sure she has a shingles.

Today, December 3, we took her again to hospital where straight away they diagnosed appendicitis, and now she will have to have an operation.

However, if it had not been noticed today, and if she had have been forced to carry on with untreated appendicitis, what would have been the consequence? And who would be responsible for it?

KAROLINA GELEZINYTE

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